


The Rift That Tore This World in Two

by ThreeSorrows



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), Childhood, Fix-It, Friendship, Fuuinjutsu, Gen, It's kinda sentient, Jinchuuriki - Freeform, Jinchuuriki-centric, Sakura is terrifying, Secrets, Sensor! Naruto, Team as Family, Telepathic Link, The Rookie Nine, The academy system is completely redone, Uzushio Village, but not right away, he makes people like him, including Sasuke, it takes a while, naruto is a ball of sunshine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-04-04 19:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 48,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14027274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThreeSorrows/pseuds/ThreeSorrows
Summary: Naruto is the demon container, Kyuubi jinchuuriki, of Konoha. The village hidden in the leaves. He grows up alone and ostracised by all. Except, that's not quite right.Naruto grows up with eight other people in his head. People who are just like him. The other jinchuuriki who only know hate and fear in their own lives and their own villages. The rule is that they keep to themselves and keep the link and the White Room a secret. You don't interact with jinchuuriki from other villages unless its an emergency, that's the rule, it's always been the rule for them. It's a rule that doesn't hold for very long at all. Naruto grows up with eight other people in his head and he somehow manages to become friends with every one of them.She could still sometimes find cracks in the white room still healing from the damage of the war. Maybe the room would have shattered in another life but in this one it was still going strong and causing problems for her.





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [In the Company Of](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7059733) by [cyan96](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyan96/pseuds/cyan96). 



**~~\------------------~~ **

Kushina’s death ripped through the mental bond of the jinchuuriki, still weakened from the joining of the Ichibi’s host only two months ago. The shared agony raced like fire down gasoline through the link and caught everyone up in the backlash of her disconnection. Normally, a jinchuuriki would know that the Bijuu was going to be moved to a new host and could prepare. Slowly building up more and more shields between them and the others to lessen the effect of the agony that ripped through them and that could shake the White Room to its foundations. It was a curtesy as well as a responsibility. _This_ was not that kind of death, it was the exact opposite.

For months now the boundaries that had been so painstakingly woven around the Kyuubi’s jinchuuriki had been loosening. Allowing a bright warm glow to seep through the widening cracks. It was annoying and distracting. It was also angering, how could she have so much happiness that it would transfer over to the White Room while the rest of them still had so little.

Just a few minutes ago Kushina had been in pain, not the pain of having a Bijuu ripped out but still, pain. It had given Yugito a sort of vindictive pleasure that something could dampen that frustrating glow. But then, of course, it had come back, stronger and more blinding then ever.

_Naruto_

The word was crooned over the bond that Kushina probably wasn’t even consciously accessing. For the past hour she had been sending snippets of ranting through about useless blonds and stupid foxes. Even more barriers had fallen away after the word at the sheer joy that the woman was feeling. There was absolutely nothing that could block the infernal emotion from reaching Yugito's own mindscape through her many barriers. Then, something had gone wrong and Yugito’s smugness came back full force, that was, until that something went horribly and terribly wrong for the other jinchuuriki which included herself.

Kushina’s entrance to the White Room had been forcibly ripped out from her mindscape along with her Bijuu. Which was very, very bad. The mental link seemed to shake and suddenly it wasn't the only one collapsing, the jinchuuriki had joined it. Physical distance did nothing to tame the fire tearing through her mindscape. It burned her insides almost as if they were melting except they weren't which meant the  _pain couldn't stop_. Yugito was barely aware of her knees giving out as blood dripped down her face from where her nails had punctured the skin. But still it didn't  **stop**.

Then it’s as if she’s dunked into a bucket of cold water. It puts out the real-but-not fire that is racing across her own mindscape. The _black running through water_ of Killer B’s mental presence wraps around her, shielding her from the burning of Kushina’s mental hole that used to leak _blazing sun on ocean breeze_. Dimly she’s aware of Fū’s screaming even as Han’s _whispering grass in the wind_ is trying to silence her. As the eldest jinchuuriki, Roushi’s _ancient lava under cooled rock_ is stretched thin trying to cover both the Ichibi’s jinchuuriki and Utakata who is still too young to be able to protect himself properly. _Weak_. Her mind whispers _like you, too weak to protect yourself from the pain, too weak to not wish the glowing back, so weak that you would be dead if you were in_ _combat_.The words are running on repeat through her brain even as she sinks herself deeper into Killer B’s shields. Her own barriers too decimated by Kushina’s last cry to properly pull her scattered mind back together.

It leaves her open and vulnerable to everything else. Open to feel the questioning ripple of _brine on sunken ship_ that is impossibly new.

The jinchuuriki of the Sanbi had always been a muted presence in the cacophony of other people’s thoughts and emotions that crowded her brain until she had gotten her shields up. The previous Sanbi’s host had been the most recent one to die a violent death up until now, they hadn’t even been a jinchuuriki for more than three days before they had passed into the Shinigami's hands. The link to the White Room takes months or years to connect and fully settle, the backlash of their death had been barely noticeable. They had been the only other jinchuuriki of the Sanbi that Yugito had ever known, she had assumed that the Sanbi’s host was just naturally muted. But that was evidently not the case.

Now, with a child’s curiosity _that she should not have Sage damn it!_ She carefully reached out through the thinning blackness of Killer B’s shield and towards the new presence. Yugito sent out a careful impression of a hello before her attention was dragged to where the hole Kushina had left had vanished. The new connection absorbing all remaining echoes of fire that had previously run rampant through the White Room. Konoha had evidently waisted no time in resealing their Bijuu. 

She reached for her door, hidden in one of _her_ blue hellfire flames scattered atop the mountains of her mindscape. Yugito stepped quickly off of the circle with a two tailed cat on it from which she had arrived and made her way towards the circle with the nine tailed fox. Killer B's not quite tangible presence tried to tug her away from the white circle but she snapped at it until it left her alone.

A faint tug in the back of her mind told her someone else was searching for their door. It made no sense as all the other jinchuuriki knew how to reach the White Room and the new host of the Kyuubi didn't even have a link to follow yet. She traced the feeling back to the fully coloured in circle that lay to the left of hers. Yugito found herself at a bit of a loss as to what to do, sure the glow was gone but it also meant there was a new host to bug her. She settled for staring mutely between the two doors as her scattered mind pieced itself back together.

Roushi dropped in, dragging Utakata with him due to the fact that the boy was still clinging to  _ancient lava under cooled rock_. The oldest jinchuuriki reached out to grab her shoulder but she snarled at him before grabbing his arm and attempting to flip him over her shoulder. Unfortunately, he was both bigger and more experienced than her. In one fluid motion he reversed her grip and wrenched her arm behind her back and applying enough pressure that her legs buckled. Roushi held her like that for a moment as she hissed threats at him before pushing her away.

As she stumbled to her feet Roushi opened his mouth as if to say something but froze right before he got the words out. It only took Yugito another moment to also detect the presence that had latched onto her  _stinging blue fire_ and was using it to pull itself into the link. The three tails' circle lit up a blinding grey-green that seemed to fill the infinite emptiness of the White Room. It took several seconds of furious blinking to clear the spots from her eyes so Yugito could see who had appeared in the White Room. The teen, who she belatedly realized was not actually a teen, was surveying the room with purple eyes and on his grey hair was the Mizukage hat. Crap.

The entire mental bond went dead silent, if it were any other time Yugito probably would have enjoyed the silence of no one else talking or absently sending stray thoughts through the telepathic link. She knew that she was signing up to have a voice in her head when she was chosen to host the Nibi but she did not sign up for the eight others that came with it. Like she said, normally this would be a blessing. Instead, everyone’s attention was split between the murderous Kage and the jinchuuriki who brought him into the White Room (if on accident). Yugito mentally prepared to flee if things got hairy. It would not be the first time jinchuuriki’s attacked one another in the White Room and it most likely wouldn’t be the last time either.

“Excuse me” he said mildly “But would you kindly inform me what is going on kunoichi-san”

The words were directed at her but her mouth was suddenly too dry to answer. Never mind the fact that physical needs like water were not a thing in the White Room. The silence lasted for one more blessed second before the White Room and mental link descended into unbridled chaos. In the span of seconds Killer B, Han, and Fū dropped in, though the later was probably there out of sheer curiosity. An octopus tentacle wrapped around her waist and pulled her behind the other Kumo jinchuuriki, Fū was dumped unceremoniously in her hands and Utakata put by her side. She snarled at the turned back of Killer B, but, as much as she was loathe to admit it, she was not quite ready for a Kage level opponent just yet. She settled for shoving Fū off to Utakata, pulling out of the mindscape and slamming down her strongest barriers. If a full-scale battle was about to erupt in the White Room she would not be in the middle of it.

She had only just become a jinchuuriki when the third shinobi war was winding down but she could still remember those first few weeks of blinding pain where she fought to get some sort of shield up. Killer B was on the front lines and she hadn’t even met him yet so there had been no help on that front. She had to struggle through it herself while her body was adjusting to having a Bijuu sealed in it. Yugito still shivered when reminded of the Third Great Shinobi War. The memory was still clear in her mind even though she had only been three at the time. Pain had been a weapon to distract and debilitate enemy jinchuuriki during the war. It was scarily effective. All it took was one well timed attack and all the other jinchuuriki would lose concentration, in the fast paced battles of war that was a thing no one could afford. Someone would drop into the White Room to send a wave of attacks only to try and leave before the attack rebounded on them or they were caught by another jinchuuriki. The times they had been caught were worse, if it had been amplified by one person in the White Room it was resonating with two. She could still sometimes find cracks in the White Room still healing from the damage of the war. Maybe the room would have shattered in another life but in this one it was still going strong and causing problems for her.

It was lucky that she had her own private training ground or other shinobi would have seen her collapsing into the dirt. Shinobi that showed weakness were dead shinobi in Kumo and Yugito was not weak. Jinchuuriki did not, could not, show weakness. As it was, she simply had to dust herself off and ignore the pain of sore limbs and head from practically passing out while standing up. The cuts on her head already closing from the presence of the Nibi and she could wash the dried blood out of her hair later.

 

(Later, Killer B would tell her about how Yagura was being controlled by a genjutsu. How the angry fire of Kushina’s death in the White Room had disrupted his chakra enough to wake him up. He would tell her about the masked man and what limited plans they knew about from Yagura. How the jinchuuriki now had even more people that would be hunting them and she would be one of the first on the list to be taken. She would respond that she would just need to keep training until she could stand on her own so leave her alone. But that was later and right now she could sit and stew in her pot of misery and anger.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's a wrap.  
> In future the chapters will be split into two parts but I'm keeping it simple for the prolouge. If you couldn't tell this chapter was in Yugito's POV. The next chapter will be posted Monday of next week.


	2. Problems in Mist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fū meets Naruto in the White Room
> 
> and
> 
> Yagura has a plan that will totally work

~~\------------------~~

Naruto had grown up with voices in his head.

It had started perhaps not the moment he had been born but probably just hours after. There had not been a complete connection immediately, it had been more of a buzz in the back of his head than actual voices, but still very much there. Naruto was quite a peculiar baby as well, though it only began a month and a half after his birth, whenever he began to sniff or cry or scream he would pause for a moment and then brighten up as if someone had told him it would be all okay and he had believed them. If he had been a normal child then his parents would have been relieved to not wake up every half-hour to try and lull him back to sleep, but he was not a normal child. He was an orphan with the Kyuubi caged inside of him and this strange behavior only served to enforce the idea that something was wrong with him. He could not be allowed to pose any sort of danger to the other children in the orphanage. So as a baby and a child he would have a room entirely to himself, a room with blank walls, a standard heater, and a crib. Four times a day the matron would come in to feed him from a bottle and then leave him by himself for the rest of the day. The only sounds were the creaking of the heater and his own cries.

The first time Naruto was poisoned he spent the entire day and night with hacking coughs that the matron ignored. The second time he wailed for three days while his system purged the toxin. The fifth time he carried on like nothing had happened. Poisons quickly became ineffective and no assassin ever made it into the room.

Children craved physical contact, required it in fact, and Naruto certainly wasn’t finding it in the material world. So perhaps it was this, forced isolation, that had led to him wandering the maze-like halls of his mindscape. If Naruto was physically there the feat would not be possible, but a child’s mind was much more flexible and so the space seemed to shift around him. Bending and warping to suit his needs. Taking him where he would like to go without having to physically move.

There were large and small pipes running along the sides of the blank walls but they were always just out of the baby’s reach, he was never able to quite grab one. They always seemed so close one moment and then the next they were miles away, he spent quite a while trying to grab one before getting bored and moving on. All the pipes seemed to be going in one direction, down one corridor but Naruto wasn't about to turn around just so he could follow some pipes. He probably would have been crushed by the Kyuubi if he had chased the pipes but he didn't and so his subconscious mind walled off the entrance to the hallway and created an intricate maze on the other side as soon as he moved away. Even the thought faded from his mind. Instead of following the pipes one way Naruto went exploring the other direction and kept on going. Within the first week the baby had found the faintly glowing section of his mindscape that would someday lead to the White Room. Naruto was a particularly curious and easily fascinated child so he ended up spending the better part of a day in the glowing section of corridor, waking only to be fed and carried up to look out the window for five minutes. He then proceeded to spend _three weeks_ in the corridor before the door appeared and he was dropped into the White Room.

Little baby Naruto had never been anywhere except his small room in the orphanage and had only seen the outside world very briefly. The greens, reds, and yellows he could see from the window astounded him but he was much more familiar with the white colour of his room. As such, this new room intrigued him greatly, especially the brightly coloured circles on the ground. He crawled slowly off the orange, red and green circle he was on and towards the yellow, green, and orange one just past blue, purple and grey. The closer one looked sad and the orange was on his circle. The befuddled baby ended up squished in Fū’s cooing embrace after accidentally summoning her to the White Room. The four year old had enough sense to realize that this was something important and as such nudged Han’s consciousness. All the others were either awake or confined to their mindscapes so Fū quietly whispered the news to the mildest tempered of the other seven, now eight, jinchuuriki and set to humming a lullaby for Naruto. Not that she had confirmed his name just yet.

The news was received indifferently in the evening. Utakata was still mimicking Han in the silence department and Yugito had sniffed in annoyance before blocking the mental link out once more. Roushi was either still awake or avoiding the mindscape altogether and Yagura had the mess with Kiri to figure out. From what Fū could hear it wasn't going too well as he couldn’t exactly do an entire personality swap without being accused of being an imposter and having another rebellion on his hands. One was quite enough for him as it was.

So Fū was left to deal with the newborn jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. It was a job that she took up with gusto, every sleeping minute was spent attending to and fussing over the baby. Some waking moments as well. Even when the baby was awake and she was asleep she would sit on his circle and chatter animatedly to the boy and listen to beginnings of proper thoughts that he sent back.

Gaara and Naruto met for the first time two months after Naruto had first appeared in the White Room. Killer B had long ago sat Fū down in the White Room and told her about how Gaara’s faulty seal would prevent him from sleeping and having the natural block between his thoughts and the Ichibi’s. Fū had somehow taken that as a sort of personal challenge and was attempting to combat the Ichibi through sheer power of will alone. She would narrate her day for Gaara in an internal monologue she directed solely to him and Naruto by splaying herself over the ground between the two doors and just managing to touch both at once. On the days when his thoughts consisted of _hurt, Mother, blood, scared,_ she would loudly sing what few folk songs and lullabies she knew in an attempt to drown out the tanuki’s insane ramblings. The days that Gaara slept were few and far between and Fū treasured each and every on of those nights.

She had been telling Naruto a story of two enemy ninja who had to team up against a great evil with running commentary from the others about how unrealistic the story was when Gaara popped in. Bringing a large pile of sand along with him. He was the ripe old age of two and still easily small enough that Fū could sweep him up in a hug without letting go of Naruto. The second youngest jinchuuriki had looked curiously at the other child and Fū had introduced the two of them to each other before spending the entire night playing games with both of them. By the end of the night Naruto was sticking to Gaara like a burr and he cried when the other boy disappeared.

The matrons grew very confused when the usually quiet baby started crying for two days straight. The rumours that something awful was going to happen were later dropped but those who worked at the orphanage kept up their paranoid behaviour for another month.

The two boys would meet infrequently in the White Room but Fū had caught impressions being passed between the two. Single thoughts, not quite yet words but it would get there. Gaara was much farther along than Naruto but she guessed that the older of the two had more interaction with other people. The young girl was ecstatic and she filled the empty space in her days with games of _guess the meaning_. The name was self-explanatory.

This routine continued for some time with very few of the other jinchuuriki appearing in the White Room and background conversations kept to a minimum, it was almost peaceful. The more experienced shinobi among them should have taken that as a warning sign. Nothing in a shinobi’s life was ever peaceful, _especially_ for jinchuurikis. It just happened too fast for them to prepare.

In an instant, Yagura’s steady presence that was hovering somewhere outside the White Room squirmed then practically vanished. It wasn’t death, Fū could still remember the burning that Han had shielded her from when Kushina had died and there was no fire now. Yagura’s presence had merely faded, drawn back and supressed like it had been until Yugito had brought him into the White Room and therefore the mental link. Fū could even see the bright blue and green colours dim on the three tails’ door from where she was sat with Naruto. The one year old made a questioning gurgle as the presence of _brine on sunken ship_ that he had always felt disappeared. Then the universe decided one emergency wasn't enough and Utakata’s door started to steam.

Corrosive liquid poured out of the circle from his mindscape which had become covered by a red film, eating through the White Room’s floor quicker than it could repair itself. The liquid quickly escaped the small indent the circle sat in and continued onwards. It oozed towards the main carvings of the room, over the countless seals that were woven into the fabric of the room by the very first jinchuuriki. Fū could only watch them get covered with the shouts of the others covering the hissing noise.

Everyone was loudly exchanging theories of how and why and trying to forcibly undo the block on Yagura’s mindscape once more. Then Yugito was yelling at everyone for being too loud and Naruto started wailing and Gaara buried himself even further into his mindscape. Fū was one of the two jinchuuriki currently in the White Room and apparently the only one who could see something wrong with Utakata’s door. Horror made her numb as the liquid stopped on the outermost of the main seals and diverted to the side. It reached the edge of Roushi’s circle and light flared as the liquid hardened and stopped moving for the moment. Fū breathed a sigh of relief as Roushi’s shields automatically repelled the attack. Then realization hit her and she scooped up Naruto, turned on her heel, and sprinted towards his door.

She didn’t even made it to two-thirds across the room.

The White Room had an infinite amount of space but the main _room_ was where all the central seals were inscribed and the circles existed in a ring. That ring of doors was more commonly known as the ‘main circle’. A jinchuuriki could go back to their own mindscape without reaching their door where their shields would automatically protect them but it was much more difficult than simply standing on their circle. Naruto didn’t even know something was wrong and if she couldn’t get him to his circle he would have to feel everything through the link, amplified by the White Room.  Fū didn't know what that would do to a baby's mind and she never wanted to find out.

The slime, having been blocked by main seals and then Roushi’s barriers, had turned to the next closest circle; _hers._ It hit the door and her legs buckled, she leaned forwards into a roll even as she fell in a desperate attempt to shield Naruto from any damage. If it had worked she couldn’t tell. All she could feel was her own shields and mindscape desperately trying to ward off the attack it was under. Her own defenses were naturally weaker when she was in the White Room but that fact had never bothered her, up until now that is.

She screamed. There was no biting a lip to keep this pain quiet. It wasn’t like the scrapes she got from basic training or the slices from kunai, this was all consuming _agony_. So very reminiscent of Kushina’s death except where that had melted her shields into a weird goopy stuff with heat this was _disintegrating_. She was screaming, all she could hear was screaming. The voices of the others had either been silenced or were being drowned out by her own. Maybe the liquid was burning through her own connection to the White Room and that’s why she couldn’t hear them. The very thought made her want to curl into a ball and throw up. Wasn’t she already in a ball though? She couldn’t tell.

Apparently she was screaming in the material world as well. Hands pushed down on her physical form in an attempt to hold her thrashing body down. She lashed out in a wave of unfocused chakra and teeth at the offending limbs. They paused at her vicious defense and disappeared and all that was left was the _pain_. Fū couldn’t tell how long it had lasted. It could have been anywhere from minutes to days, time had no more meaning, she just wanted it to stop. To leave her alone! The blinding agony tore through her shields like a kunai through cloth. Eroding them and skimming the surface of her mind before being flung back by a new shield. It was a loop of never ending pain that just wouldn’t _go away._

Abruptly her physical body was being moved and she dug her nails into their arms and kicked their shins because moving made it so much worse and it still _hadn't stopped_. Her body was dropped and she could barely feel the massive flare of chakra nearby. Something under her was glowing but it wasn’t the soft glow of the White Room, it was much, much harsher. Harsh enough to pierce through her closed eyes. Confusion broke through the pain for a moment and then her shields faltered in their endless loop. Her chakra was slipping away from her, being drained into some other place in the material world. Her shields strained without the extra boost that the life energy gave then and the agony was back worse than ever. She hadn’t even known it could get worse.

The material people thought the Nanabi was trying to break free and were trying to drain away its chakra. Instead they were getting hers. Her chakra that was the only thing protecting her brain from turning to mush in her undamaged skull.

Two warm spots appeared on her chest like burning coals and all of a sudden the draining halted. Her chakra stopped sliding through her already weakened grasp and settled back down into her shields. Then another chakra bubbled up from inside her, searing her limbs and reaching upwards and out. Wait . . . no, it wasn’t trying to force its way outside her body in a bid for freedom. The Nanabi’s chakra layered with her own and reinforced the weakened shields. Spinning finely woven silk into existence that layered itself atop her mind. The burning receded slowly, clinging to her veins like molasses but being pushed back nevertheless. Then, instead of two hot coals an entire furnace dropped on her. Fū’s vision cleared and she was greeted to the sight of Naruto draped over her chest like some sort of blanket. A moment later she realized that he had somehow got the drain directed to him and rolled him carefully off. The drain was back instantly but it was weaker and fading. Her body in the real world had gone still, muscles fell limp with exertion as she pulled her consciousness fully back into the White Room from where it had split. Effectively passing out.

The pain was gone but her ears were still ringing with screams. She tilted her head in confusion, she didn’t think she was screaming anymore and the voice wasn’t even female. The realization hit her like a punch to the face, she wasn’t the one screaming because it was _Utakata_ who was screaming _._ Which might have been worse, because he was always so silent and now it was a mess of,

_Pain. Betrayal. Run. Hide. Sensei. Why. Don’t stop running. Why. Hurts. WHY. WHY!_

The others were rushing around the Sanbi’s door in the White Room. No, that’s not right. Killer B and Yugito were in front of that door, Roushi was hovering near Utakata’s door as if the younger jinchuuriki might appear any second. Gaara was still hiding so where was Han?

That question was answered by a movement to her right, the bright red armour that always covered her fellow jinchuuriki shifted into view. An almost mist faded from her senses and suddenly the noise amplified to three times its normal level. Han’s shield of boiling steam had kept her separated from the others, except Naruto apparently, and she would be eternally grateful for that. The others had to do important work trying to get Utakata to calm down and bring Yagura out of the reinstated genjutsu and he could have been helping but he was here protecting her instead. Her brain also probably would have actually turned to mush if she had to deal with this level of noise during the time when her shields were down.

She offered him a smile as he trundled off towards the Kumo jinchuuriki and his eyes crinkled in return, face hidden behind cloth and lacquer.

The drain had disappeared fully and she picked up Naruto once more. She didn’t know how he had managed to feed pure, undiluted chakra that matched her resonance to her but she wasn’t about to risk doing the same to him. She didn’t even remotely have the necessary chakra control to even attempt doing such a thing.  Somehow, his mental form had not been forcibly shut back into his mindscape so he probably wasn’t suffering from chakra exhaustion. If he was, she might just risk it. Instead, the little furnace just curled into her arms.

“Foo” he mumbled and Kami if that wasn’t adorable, even if he had pronounced it wrong.

The two of them sat there for a while, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of panic but not really paying any attention to it. Eventually, Naruto’s form shimmered slightly and disappeared back to his mindscape for some proper rest. Fū followed his example not long after. Landing in the pool that her waterfall created she surveyed the damage to her mindscape. A few trees had been knocked over and the worn forest temple had gained some more cracks but the damage wasn’t too severe. The most noticeable change was the shimmering layers added to the sky. New silken barriers that allowed more silence in her own mind then she’d had in a long time. She savoured the peace for a couple seconds and then rolled away the outermost shield. Quiet voices flickered through. Yugito’s _stinging blue fire,_ Killer B’s _black running through water,_ and even Utakata’s new _reflection on the surface of a bubble._ She hadn’t gotten her own signature yet, neither Gaara nor Naruto had one yet either but Utakata’s had just developed and she had fallen even further behind in the non-existent race. A small pout crossed her face before she sunk back into the pool, surrounded by the soft voices of her family. Content.

They put the collar on the very next day.

 

* * *

 

Yagura was not having a particularly nice day, that being said, he hadn’t had a particularly nice couple of years either. His office was a mess of maps and letters and other papers, his chair was cold, and one of the lights was broken. Normally, the view of Kiri from the Mizukage's office would have been soothing but now it just served as a reminder. A reminder of all that he had to do and all that had been done. The bloodline purges were the work of prejudice and fanatics, those fanatics believed that he shared the same views as them because of the one eyed man. Said person had apparently felt the need to come by and reinforce whatever genjutsu he was supposed to be under and now he had effectively wasted an entire day. Yagura. Could. Not. Afford. To. Waste. A. Single. Day.

Kiri was in shambles. There were no two ways about it. Of the seven swords only two remained loyal to the Mizukage. One was with the rebel faction and the other four were missing. The daimyo of the water country was either in hiding or dead, and their funds were drying up fast. There had been minimal missions assigned, just barely enough to keep Kiri afloat, and it was a wondering that the majority of people weren't starving yet. Whole towns had been reduced to nothing in the conflict between the two factions. Small villages were turning against the bloodline users that made Kiri able to compete with the other great hidden villages and the whole thing was an absolute mess. He’s not sure exactly what the masked man’s plan is but if it’s to weaken Kiri he’d done a fine job of it. So a wasted day was something that was very, very bad.

“Mizukage-sama!” a runner bursts into the room but the glare he leveled at them made the messenger step back.

“ _What?_ ” he hissed between clenched teeth.             

He wasn’t going to kill the man, good messengers were hard to come by after all. But he was also extremely irritated about being interrupted in the middle of his thought process and he had appearances to keep up. He did not have the time for this, who knew how often the one eyed man came by to reinforce the genjutsu so Yagura most likely had only a tiny amount of time to come up with a plan and execute it.

“Mei Terumi was spotted near outpost 7K, the captain is asking for your orders sir”

Yagura clicked his tongue “leave me, I shall deal with this personally.” The beginnings of an idea formed in his mind “It is time that Terumi’s little rebellion be put to an end”

The messenger fled before his sentence was finished. If Yagura had truly wanted to kill them the extra couple of seconds wouldn’t have mattered but it got the extra problem out of his hair faster. His personal bodyguards were all out on missions which meant that he was _finally_ alone to do some proper thinking. If this was going to go the way he thought it would there would need to be measures against this situation ever happening again. The Mizukage could not be allowed to run around totally unchecked. Total control may work for the other villages but Kiri was in a precarious position at the moment. Perhaps a new ANBU division would need to be formed, yes, that would work nicely. Searching his desk, Yagura pulled out a piece of blank paper and began to write.

 

The battle of outpost 7K lasted nearly a month. In the end, it was the final battle of the Kirigakure civil war. For weeks there had been small skirmishes with the enemy, sabotaged supply lines, and suicide bombers but no true battles had taken place. All available forces had been scrounged up, every last desk shinobi from Kirigakure and every young Genin from the various rebel camps scattered around the thick mists of the land of water. The nights were sleepless and the food was tasteless. Many of them did not expect to make it out alive.

Tensions came to a head during the last week of monsoon season. The rain had not let up for months and the resulting water could not be carried away by the ruined drainage system so it just sat on the saturated field. The ground was mud that sucked your feet in, suffocating and killing far more effectively than any technique that had attempted to mimic it. There were craters so deep that one could drown in the water that filled it. Ninja wire was strung haphazardly around the field and explosive tags which had been launched at some point but hadn’t detonated that sat in the mud and were just waiting to go off. The shinobi of Kirigakure launched a massive attack and the rebels had responded accordingly. The battlefield was a chaotic mess of water techniques, swords, and bodies. No forces had been left out of the conflict, save for the ones required to man the border forts. Regular ninjas faced each other down in a battle of reaction time and stamina while the two leader cut swaths through the battlefield to reach each other. A single ANBU was by the Mizukage’s side that mirroring Terumi’s second in command like Yagura's signature technique. One there to take the other out of the equation so the leaders could focus on each other. Two forces of nature destined to clash with one another.

Yagura barely managed to supress a wince as he cut down another shinobi at the new onslaught of attacks that bombarded his mental shields. The other jinchuuriki’s were demanding to know _just_ _what was going on?_ The two Kumo jinchuuriki had more of an idea of what the battlefields in Kiri looked like at the moment but the others were quick to pick up on their worry. Suna’s jinchuuriki was unfortunately in the White Room at the moment, it was a rare occurrence that enhanced the mental attacks that had been going on in shifts since last week. Perhaps one of the others had brought him in just for that purpose. They knew something big was going on and they probably wanted to talk him out of whatever insane plan he had cooked up. Or they wanted to yell at him. He could afford neither of these things at the moment. Their distraction was invaluable.

Terumi was a strong opponent, she had to be as a candidate for Godaime Mizukage. Two extremely powerful kekkei genkai’s, a mastery of suiton ninjutsu, proficiency with doton, and a sharp mind would make her a difficult opponent. The plan would be hard enough to pull off without the constant onslaught of the other jinchuuriki. He sent out a mental thanks to Isobu who was bearing the brunt of the attacks on her own mental shields. In his moment of inattention a large blast of corrosive mud came hurtling through the air towards him. He casually flicked his fingers through the hand signs for **Suiton: Ja No Kuchi**. A spinning column of water taking the shape of a snake appeared in front of him. It reared back before surging forwards to meet the mud, swallowing attack and collapsing into a stream of water. The projectile continued on but landed slightly to the left of him taking out some of the more radical shinobi and obscuring his position for the moment. _Dragon- Tiger- Hare._

 _“_ **Suiton Mizurappa”**

The water ballooned in his gut before rushing out from his mouth in a torrent towards the location from where the corrosive mud came from. Sending out a flare of chakra at the exact same moment as he released the water Yagura activated the chakra that he had been slowly distributing through the thin mist for the past week. Cursing, he leaped back from his position where there was now a steaming pile of mud that was eating into the ground. The sensing technique he was employing allowed him to see five signatures all matching Terumi’s scattered around his position. **Mizu Bunshin no jutsu.**  Each one containing the exact same amount of chakra. One presence disappeared from his senses and another lump of mud was aimed at his location. They were suicide clones, meant for one hit only and the bonus of confusion.

With one hand he directed his ANBU towards Ao’s location. The byakugan killer was lying in wait, most likely for an opportunity to kill him but he could not have the byakugan eye watching while he fought Terumi. Still, Yagura held no illusions as to who would win that fight. Another shot of mud was thrown at him but this time he swung his staff around in a perfect circle in front of him forming a mirror of water. An exact replica of the technique flying out to cancel the attack. Using the few seconds that his signature technique had bought him he sped through the signs for **Doton: Dochū Senkō** and dove into the ground. Water clones needed to be somewhat close to their creator to retain their strength and she was not above ground. That meant she had to be below. All he had to do was find the trail any doton technique left behind.

His sixth sense was suddenly telling him to _get the hell out of there_ and Yagura had more than enough experience in high stakes battle to not make the mistake of ignoring it. Making a sharp turn upwards he barely missed getting crushed by the earth dragon that barreled along the tunnel after him. The stone beast curved and flew up after him barely slowing down in the sludge like mess that his technique made a path out of. Yagura burst out of the ground with the dragon right on his heels, spinning around midair he sliced the creature's head off at the neck with his staff. The augmentation with wind chakra probably didn’t hurt.

Yagura was by no means a master with Fūton but he knew a few tricks.

The other clones had disappeared while he had been underground but the battle was nowhere near over. The ANBU had disappeared with Ao somewhere so that wasn't the problem but what was, was the foreign chakra invading the mist in the air. Well, maybe not so much invading as adding a new substance and destroying the other water vapour. Cursing, Yagura clapped his hands together, sending out a **Fūton: Taifūikka** that dispelled all the mist hanging in the air around him. Terumi’s boil release had just negated his greatest sensing technique, if accidentally. Her skills were a frustrating match up to his own unknown tricks.

He raised his hooked staff to catch the kick that Terumi was aiming at his ribs just in time. A stream of water came from the end and wrapped around her foot to through her off but she had already released a mouthful of corrosive fog right into his face.

Scraping against Isobu’s presence the three tailed turtle covered him in a thin chakra cloak, not even a full tail's worth. The corrosive energy seared his chakra coils but it staved off the boil release all the same. He thickened the cloak just in time to block a powerful attack that knocked his staff away and out of immediate sight. Yagura didn’t even have time to properly track it before Terumi was on him again. From there, instincts took over. _Pull back, left, **Suiton: Haran Banshō** , strike, leap up. _He lost himself in the rhythm of battle, it was a lethal dance where one misstep would cost someone their life. But he had moved to this tune many times before, it posed little threat to him at the moment.

The two leaders’ battle travelled throughout the field, and wherever they appeared destruction soon followed. Constant motion was required in one such as this, if you didn’t move you were dead. So almost all the combatants were privy to the battle. Collateral damage was high. Neither leader getting hit by an attack from the other, either dodging or deflecting the attack. Yagura was a bit more careless as to where his deflected attacks landed in comparison to Mei who curved her own away from allies. Water techniques surged between them, boiling mist would try to creep in only to be blown away once more. Corrosive mud blended in with the normal ground that had some shinobi lose a limb before they realized what had happened. Terumi was not hesitant to use her kekkei genkai that was for sure. The pair broke apart, each landing on an opposite sides of the field, a single tail appeared from Yagura’s chakra shroud and before he could pull out the second they were off again. Time had no meaning on the battlefield, it warped and twisted so that a single hour seemed to take five minutes and ten minutes could last three times that. The two leaders were both beginning to run low on chakra, Mei Terumi was using less techniques but Yagura had a much larger supply to draw on even though he had to use some to balance out the chakra cloak. At some point the second tail of the chakra shroud had appeared but nobody could quite pin down when it had happened. Yagura’s staff lay discarded near the edge of the battlefield and Terumi’s half-bun had fallen out some time ago. Still, both opponents had barely any real damage done to them. It was all scratches and close calls. Yagura looked like a demon, with his crisp red chakra shroud and two spindly tails waving behind him. Mei look like a queen, terrifying in her own right and equally as dangerous.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Yagura started the process towards accessing his version 2 cloak. The shroud seemed to thicken and expand, small pieces of coral started popping up near his planted feet. They rushed over the surrounding ground like the tide coming in over a beach, swallowing up any shinobi unlucky enough to be standing too close. He rushed through the signs for **Suiton: Suigun Suima no Jutsu** , and then it was over before the main event had even truly begun. The technique came out too powerful too fast. The Kage was knocked slightly off centre as he stepped back to balance himself only to find corrosive mud instead. The layer of chakra he had collected on his feet so not to fall into any puddles was eaten through instantly and the mud started to reach towards his flesh. He leaped out of the way with only a smoking foot to show for it but his concentration failed causing his reversion back to just two tails and Mei capitalized. What she had been carelessly spitting out before had nothing on this blast of pure lava style, this was the true power of a would-be Kage. The mud hit the off balance Mizukage and burned straight through the chakra cloak. Yagura hurriedly kawarmi’d with a nearby chunk of coral but Mei was waiting for him. A water blade in hand, she was the vengeful goddess come to cut down the Yondaime Mizukage once and for all, the civil war was over. The rebels had won.

The next time the Mizukage swept into Kiri it would be with red hair and the byakugan killer by her side. Her grin was more reminiscent of bared teeth than a graceful smile. The entourage crossed the lake surrounding the Mizukage's tower to sound of cheers and Mei Terumi settled into the cold chair in the Mizukage's office. There, she waited for the envoys to arrive.

 

In the White Room all was silent as Yagura’s plan was _finally_ revealed.

“Huh, that was actually pretty smart” Yugito finally commented

“Thank you” the child-like form of Yagura Karatachi responded.

The voice of Utakata piped up “Yeah, I’m still really confused about what is going on” Yugito opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Han before she could properly form her thought.

“Yagura-san realized there was nothing he could do for his village as the Kage and faked his death using a blood clone and well placed kawarmi. He did not tell us because he needed to be legitimately distracted for the plan to be realistic”

“I still don’t get it”

“I’ll explain it to you later” Yagura said dismissively, “for now I would like to sleep for a very long to try and get the ringing in my mindscape to dissolve” he promptly vanished back to said mindscape leaving a growling Yugito and silent Han to explain what just happened to everyone else.

“Stupid baby Kages and their stupid plans leaving other people to do all the work”

“Um, isn’t this technically your fault since you woke him up in the first place?”

Yugito then proceeded to tell Utakata that he could go back to his impression of metal head and kindly shut his mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> List of jutsu translation:  
> Water Release: Snake’s mouth  
> Water style: raging waves  
> Water clone technique  
> Earth style: underground shark jutsu  
> Wind release: passing typhoon  
> Water style: storm upheaval  
> Water release: water army water demon technique
> 
> The situation with Fū will be revealed shortly but no spoilers right now. Also, Yagura's plan is probably kind of confusing so I'm going to explain it properly. 
> 
> Basically he realized that he could do absolutely nothing to change the civil war while being a Kage so he decided to fake his own death. He did this by applying a genjutsu to his sensing technique which made time seem to stretch and shorten oddly. As Mei never really got hit with anything and the genjutsu was never used for surprise attacks and Yagura isn't well known for his prowess in genjutsu it worked. Yagura used the distraction from the mental attacks to become genuinely off balance so Mei would not be suspicious and when he kawarmi'd it was actually with a stone that his staff had automatically unsealed when it had been tossed away. There was also a blood clone unsealed which was what kawarmi'd with the coral at the same time. It took a month to make which was why Yagura waited so long to attack.
> 
> Whew, done. That was a lot of text. Anyways, see you guys next Monday.


	3. Sneaking and Hiding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto is a problem child
> 
> and
> 
> What happened to Fū

~~\------------------~~

Aside from being an unusually quiet baby, Naruto also had almost unlimited amounts of energy to burn. It was an unfortunate side effect of being an Uzumaki _and_ the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. As a baby this simply meant that he didn’t spend much time sleeping and the poisonings would siphon off all the excess energy not spent staying awake. This became a problem as a toddler and a young child when the poisonings stopped and he required less energy just to stay awake. Naruto was also mostly confined to one room and with only an hour outside it was just asking for disaster to strike. There was only so much that one could do in a single room with no toys and the attention span of a toddler. Normally, this would be the point where he would start becoming a problem child. Who bounced around everywhere, made too much noise and couldn’t concentrate because his mind was constantly flitting from one thing to the next. Without a way to burn off all that energy that was pushing to get out it would create a sort of clog in his system. Shortening his attention span even more, making him constantly hyper, and overall just slowing down his mental process. Luckily, he had a head full of people who wanted him to just stop babbling at them because he had nothing else to do.

It was Yugito who caved first. Even her strongest shields couldn’t block out the noise, pulling Gaara into the White Room by force was getting exceedingly difficult to do, and Fū was non-responsive. All the others apparently had some well of infinite patience to draw from but she didn’t even know how that was remotely possible with the blond nightmare. Even the large distance between Konohagakure and Kumogakure was of very little help. When one was trying hold a steady conversation with a Bijuu they needed to concentrate and Naruto was unnaturally good at disrupting said concentration. This was a very delicate stage in training with her Bijuu and he was ruining it. Her own policy of not getting involved with other village’s jinchuuriki was eventually overruled by the fact that she just couldn’t get anything done while he was bugging everyone.

The next night she dropped into the White Room from her mountains, irritation flecking her _stinging blue fire_. She clamped a hand over the kid’s mouth to stop his inane babbling before it could properly get going. Then she materialized a locked door in the centre of the room and set him to work trying to pick it.

“Okay you little nightmare, you have annoyed me sufficiently enough that I’m going to help you get out of that room you’re always whining about. Now try and pick this lock with these”

The display that followed hurt her down to her very soul, it really did, because the little nightmare of a kid had absolutely no idea how to do anything! He was three! She was being taught how to hold a kunai at that age. No wonder Konoha was soft, jinchuuriki were _weapons,_ and Naruto was a _liability_. It was a disgrace to all of them, including herself, that he couldn’t even pick a simple lock. That’s what she told herself as she carefully showed him the most efficient way to pick the simple lock that she had conjured. There was simply no other reason that she would do this aside from getting him to stop talking. She continued to tell herself this even as she spent the next five night going through increasingly complicated locks. His exuberance never faded, always excited to try something new or show off his skills to Gaara or Fū even though there was no indication the other jinchuuriki could even hear him. Her own irritation towards the little nightmare faded a tiny amount. That was solely because he had stopped shouting so loudly in the White Room during the day and she could finally make some progress with the Nibi.

When he came skulking in on the sixth night she raised an eyebrow at him but his mouth stayed stubbornly shut. He mumbled throughout the entire lesson and didn’t even celebrate when he finally figured out how to pick the newest lock she had come up with. She’d have to start incorporating something new into the locks, barriers? Seals? Chakra identification? He was getting far too good at destroying her challenges. Finally, her irritation at the kid grew to intolerable levels, what was wrong with him tonight?

She broached the subject with as much caution and tact as she could muster, which is to say she materialized a chair, sat him down in it, and proceeded to ask just what the hell was wrong with him tonight. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t all the tact she could muster (it was in fact a very small amount) but the kid looked fine. That sentiment held for a total of five seconds, after which Naruto sniffed once, twice, and started bawling like a newborn. Yugito was a professional kunoichi who had killed many people before his age. This did not stop her from taking a step or two back when this happened because she was a _shinobi_ not a Kami damned housewife.

“Uh, there, there. I’m not mad at you little nightmare, I just want to know what’s wrong” That was a total lie. Alright, not a total one but the part about not being mad definitely was. What was the kid’s problem!

Apparently this was the wrong thing to say because the next second Yugito had been tackled by a child that was now sobbing into her jacket. She wrapped her arms around the thing that came hurtling towards her, shifting into a stance that would allow her to throw it over her shoulder. Then, she froze at the last moment before she actually did throw the kid and possibly have broken his mental self’s neck. It wasn’t out of any mistaken idea that she didn’t want to hurt the brat and more like shock setting in because a child had just sought her out for comfort. She barely managed not killing the little nightmare long enough to get the actual story out of him.

“I- I’m sorry Yu-san, I wanted to try and sneak out of the room today but, but I- I couldn’t” and he burst into a new round of tears. It took another twenty minutes before she found out why he couldn’t get out “I tried to get out I really did, but there were no metal sticks like you have and when I tried to use some wood from the floor the old lady came in and sh-she yelled at me. It was only a little bit of wood I promise. An, an’ I didn’t think it would really matter but the lady was really angry like you are when I’m too loud ‘cept worse.” She had to give the matron of the orphanage props, she had thought she was pretty scary when she yelled at him to shut up. “An she didn’t bring food tha’ night either”

“Okay, look, little nightmare, you are not going to have any lock picks unless you buy them and you have no money and no place to buy them. Do you know what this means?”

Technically he could also steal them but Yugito didn’t trust him not to get caught doing so if he ever managed to get to his village’s marketplace. The black market was totally out of the question. Yugito didn’t even know where it was in Konoha, only that it existed and was damn good at what it did. All underground activity in shinobi villages had to be.

“No” he said looking downcast

“It means you are going to have to improvise. Shinobi rule number forty-three: a shinobi must always be aware of their surroundings and use them to their advantage”

He looked up at her face “There are rules to being a shinobi! I want to be a shinobi when I grow up I’m going to ask Jiji how to become a ninja when he comes around again. Then I can be cool and awesome just like you Yu-san!”

Yes, she did in fact know he wanted to be a shinobi when he grew up, he had spent days rambling about it to them after seeing someone jumping over the rooftops and hearing what they were. She didn’t exactly know who this ‘Jiji’ was but he had mentioned him a few times before so her best guess was the kid’s handler. What she hadn’t know was that the little nightmare thought she was cool and awesome. Yugito would prefer dangerous and at least mildly terrifying but she would take what she could get.

“Yeah little nightmare, there are rules to being a shinobi and we’d have to sit here the rest of the night just trying to make sure you understand them. Besides, you’ll learn them when training to become a shinobi in your village’s ninja academy. Right now you are trying to find a way out of that room so don’t get distracted, now listen very carefully, I want you to picture your room. Imagine every little crack and imagine that it’s right here under your feet. . .”

It took a few tries before Naruto was properly able to materialize the room he was effectively trapped in. It wasn’t perfect and she informed him of that before congratulating him on getting the concept down so quickly. He practically vibrated at the achievement which, of course, caused him to lose focus and the room disappeared once more. Yugito groaned, why couldn’t Naruto have been a quiet kid like Gaara? Then she remembered that she also wouldn’t be in this mess if the little nightmare was like Gaara. That kid knew how to hold his tongue, though that may have been more from shyness than anything else.

It took another seven tries before the room was stabilized and Yugito had to admit she was impressed by how barren it was. She had thought that Naruto was exaggerating like kids were prone to do. The walls and ceiling were a solid white, there were a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling too high for the kid to reach. The floors were planks of smooth wood except for one patch which must have been dug up when Naruto tried to make a lock pick. Aside from that there was a small mattress on the floor with a single blanket, a solid wooden door that locked from the outside, and a closed window to let some natural light in. There wasn’t even a single toy or stuffed animal anywhere. Well, at least the little nightmare wouldn’t be going soft any time soon, then again his attitude begged to differ. The kid was bawling his eyes out one moment and now he was bouncing around his mattress without a care in the world. That was when the only other thing in the room finally caught her eye. Tucked in beside the mattress was two long sticks of wood.  

“Oi, kid, what are those?” she pointed at the offending items

“Oh, those are my chopsticks for food Yu-san”

“You use the same chopsticks for food every day?” she asked incredulously, jinchuuriki’s had a mean healing factor but chopsticks would wear down and would get a normal person sick if they just sat on the floor like that.

“Nah, they give me new ones every week” that was something she could work with even if it was still extremely unsanitary.

“Well you’re going to use those to pick the lock on your door, if you actually succeed we can see about getting real lock picks for you”

“But they’re not pointy, the ones you always give me are pointy! I can’t pick the lock with them!”

Yugito leveled an unimpressed stare at him and he slowly backed down “I know you can’t kid, you can’t do anything except breath and eat unless I show you apparently. So I can either show you how to use them blunt or you can sharpen them on an edge.”

“Uh, which one will take longer?”

“Depends on how comfortable you are with getting splinters in your mouth” The horrified look on the little nightmare’s face was enough to make Yugito smirk.

 

The end result was actually a combination of both options. During the night while Naruto slept he would practice picking the lock on his door with the blunted chopsticks. When it was day time he ended up chewing on the chopsticks as he worked on the workbooks that were given to every child to try and help them learn to read and write. The matron did not seem too happy about giving them to him but apparently was being forced to do so.

There was a lot of whining on Naruto’s end about how the books were boring and the stories made no sense. Thankfully this was where bribery became effective. Naruto was so starved of proper contact that Yugito and the matron were the only people who he interacted with on a regular basis. This ‘Jiji’ only appeared once every month for a couple of hours before leaving. Gaara’s appearance was sporadic at best, sometimes not appearing for months on end unless someone forcibly dragged his conscious there. The Nanabi’s jinchuuriki had stopped dropping in a while ago for some unknown reason and none of the other jinchuuriki had any reason to appear. So bribing Naruto with Gaara was the simple solution. At the end of every week when his chopsticks were changed Yugito would force Gaara’s conscious into a meditative (not sleep, Killer B had warned her about sleep) state and pull it into the White Room.

It honestly wasn’t as hard as it should have been, for both boys. Naruto wouldn’t bug her for a night and would stop whining and actually complete his work. Gaara had stopped putting up a fight to her dragging him in as bribery as soon as he realized she wasn’t actually putting him to sleep. The fact that it was on a schedule so he knew when she would be coming for him probably helped as well. Seriously, Yagura? Roushi? Han? Somebody had to have sat that kid down and taught him how to put up a shield because those things put up a fight when he was concentrating on them. Or maybe it was a side effect of having a murderous tanuki screaming in your head at all hours of the day. It worked for her so she didn’t question it.

She would probably regret the decision to go with bribery later on. Gaara calmed Naruto down a bit but Naruto also had a bit of an effect on Gaara. Maybe it would be negated by his village and Bijuu but at this rate she couldn’t see that happening. Yugito did not need two nightmares running around in the White Room shouting at the top of their lungs. (In two years she would look back on that statement and wonder how much of a fool she was).

It was a whole month after Yugito had been forced into teaching Naruto how to pick a lock when she finally decided he was ready to try and break out. It was the day before the chopsticks were getting swapped out and Naruto had spent the entire morning practically bouncing off the ceiling with nervous energy. The bright lights appeared in the White Room in a way very reminiscent of Kushina’s last days, except not quite so distracting. There wasn’t the constant glow only little orange sparks that popped in once and a while. Where Kushina’s barriers had been slipping, Naruto’s were practically non-existent from the very beginning. It was a wonder that so little made it through, after he successfully escaped his room she would have to teach him to properly meditate. Matabi had mentioned that it would be a good idea to get him in contact with the Kyuubi soon as well. It was a wonder he hadn’t already stumbled upon it and had it crush him already.

The lock was opened ten minutes after the matron had left with the lunch plate, and Yugito gave him a mental nudge across the link. Reminding him to put the chopsticks back where they always were, it wouldn’t due for his method of escape to be realized if he was caught.

He was caught. Very, very quickly. He hadn’t even made it to the front door before some little kid saw him and made a fuss, Naruto froze, the matron came running and it was all over.

Well, not quite over. The caretaker believed they had just accidentally left the door unlocked and the little nightmare had slipped out. The chopsticks were replaced and Naruto entered the White Room with a pout on his face. The small amount of time with Gaara cheered him up but the other boy had to leave sooner than normal. His father was waking him up earlier and earlier to practice with his sand.

“I don’t mind” the red head had said in a quiet voice “It means I can learn new things to show you”

The boy did show Naruto a lot of things. He spent an entire week wandering around Suna just to create a mini replica of it that rested between their two circles. When Gaara learned how to make his sand form a platform so he could move on it he and Naruto had spent the entire night floating around the vast emptiness of the White Room.

Anyways, it was quite obvious what was stopping the little nightmare from getting out of that kami forsaken room and finally leaving her alone. The child was acting like the fact that he got out of the room made him undetectable, his footsteps were like a stampede of elephants. Still, his clothes were fairly normal, a long-sleeved green shirt with a white short sleeved shirt pulled over top. The brilliant red spiral design displayed on his chest made her wonder if he truly was an Uzumaki and it wasn’t just a name they had randomly given him but she shoved the thought aside. The Kyuubi’s two previous jinchuuriki had both been Uzumaki so maybe only they had the resonance to produce a functioning jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi. Other than that he wore green shorts and uniform black shoes, there was nothing else notable about him except, you know, his entire face. The sunny blond hair made it look almost like he was from Suna or Kumo and with those eyes it was like he was from Kiri. The most damning thing were the three whiskers on each cheek. The moment the people of the village laid eyes on him they would know he was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Okay, scrap meditation plans they needed to work on stealth, lots and lots of stealth.

The next time that Naruto broke out of the room he managed to get out onto the steps before he froze again and the matron dragged him back to his room. Note to self: when a child has been locked in a room for most of their life, crowds will be confusing. Yugito solved _that_ by materializing random parts of Kumo filled with people that the little nightmare would have to get through without a civilian realizing who he was. Gaara even pitched in with parts of Suna even though he also didn’t know what a crowd really looked like. It took far too long for him to reach acceptable standards.

Naruto got a street down before getting scooped up by someone and a second later was right back in the room. This time there were heat seals that would burn any wood that entered the lock. Yugito had been wondering where the ANBU guard normally assigned to jinchuuriki was. Good thing she had gotten him to collect the pieces of scrap metal in an alleyway they passed first. Though he still stood out too much if ANBU found him _that_ quickly.

The next time he got two blocks down and was staring at some trinkets before the ANBU scooped him up. Still more stealth training needed.

He got as far as the market place. The original pieces of scrap metal were gone, Yugito had had him nick some real lock picks before the ANBU found them. There was still a barrier on the door now though. That kind of negated the need for proper lock picks. 

Konoha ANBU sucked, because they were watching the door so closely that they missed him slipping out the window. It probably had something to do with the fact that they could never be watching from the inside in a henge, Naruto had an unfortunate habit of flinging his pencil at any flies that got in. Yugito had absolutely _nothing_ to do with that, nothing at all. They only caught him when he tried to mimic their running on the roofs. Conservation of movement was atrocious and some free running training wouldn’t hurt for when he became a genin and had to leap between trees.

He saw an ANBU leaping out of an open window this time. A quick climb revealed a window with an advanced barrier seal on it that looked into a Spartan room with extremely obvious ANBU gear lying around. Yugito honestly wondered how Konoha had won all the Great Ninja Wars with security lax enough that a four year old could find ANBU headquarters. Then again, jinchuuriki were naturally amazing. There was a quiet muttering of _she thinks I’m vain?_ From Matabi but Yugito shushed her before focusing back on her little nightmare’s progress report.

So he wasn’t a problem child in the sense that he was a loud, idiot, buffoon who wouldn’t know subtle if it smacked him in the face. He was a problem child in the sense that the orphanage just couldn’t seem to keep him in his room. It seemed like almost every other day that Naruto had slipped his leash and was off traipsing about the village with no one the wiser. None of the ANBU were ready to admit to the Hokage that they were repeatedly losing an almost five year old only to find him again in a random part of the village. Sometimes it even seemed like the kid was waiting for them (not that their ANBU pride would allow them to admit that a four year old was playing with them).

It all worked out in the end. Naruto was given room to run and grow and burn off the absurd amount of excess energy that he had. The ANBU gained a new training exercise (only Inu was able to reliably catch the jinchuuriki in good time and sometimes he still just sat back and watched as the other ANBU floundered). Yugito got a kitten in the shape of a little nightmare.

 

* * *

 

 

Fū’s morning began with the sun. She woke up minutes before it crested the horizon of Takigakure, the first week after Utak- no, the Rokubi’s jinchuuriki lost control she had been late getting up. Fū still shivered when remembering that week. She ran through her morning stretches, pulling the aching muscles into a condition resembling moveable. Then she lay back down on her cot staring at the ceiling she had memorized months ago. The mint haired girl counted down the minutes as they slowly ticked away, _10, 6, 5, 3, 1._ The steady thunk of her handler’s boots had her standing at the foot of her coot, head down. He was 23 steps away from the iron door, she was 10.

The metal groaned open and the hulking form of her handler appeared in the doorway, he dropped a tray down just inside and turned to leave. She followed him out the room, stopping momentarily to pick up her food before rushing to catch up. 5 steps behind, always 5 steps. No closer no farther. The food was bland and tasteless as she shoveled it into her mouth. Months of pure sensory deprivation at night had enhanced hers to the point where she could smell the stale alcohol on him mixed with the shampoo he had used when taking a shower that morning. She could see the hairs on the back of his neck even in the darkness of the passageway, and yet somehow the food remained as tasteless as ever.

Another door was opened as cool, morning air swept through the tunnel, moments afterwards she stepped out from between the roots of the great tree that sat at the heart of Takigakure. The door always shut just moments after she escaped the metal halls of her prison, some days she was caught behind it. Or inside it. Fū’s fingers twitched towards the marks on her right arm, jinchuuriki did not scar easily but they still could. And a twinge on her neck bitterly reminded her that she was still nowhere near free.

There were few people awake at this time of morning, let alone outside but Fū was still shepherded through back alleys away from the eyes of the civilians. _It wouldn’t do to upset them by having them see a demon in their midst_ she thought bitterly. 5 steps behind, stay 5 steps behind. Give no reason to annoy him and you will not be punished, for now. It was 874 steps to the outermost training field in Taki that was set aside specially for her. It was equipped with a large flatland for taijutsu practice, a grove of trees to practice chakra control and the first steps of wind nature chakra, a small waterfall, and a large sealing array specifically designed to trap and incapacitate a jinchuuriki. Once there, her handler never failed to disappear the moment she stepped into the array, he did not forget to activate the seal. He never forgot. So long as the seal was active an electric current would be generated by the leather collar surrounding her neck if she tried to leave the array until she moved away. He never forgot to activate the array but all too frequently he forgot to deactivate it. He would go out and get drunk and leave her out in the seal until he came to get her the next morning. Her thin clothes were not meant to block the cold nights and she knew that without the Nanabi’s chakra she would most likely have frozen to death the first night. Each time he forgot he would pin her with a glare like it was her fault that she didn’t freeze to death so he had to pick her up in the morning. As it was, she did not dare skimping on her training even with him gone, at the end of this month she would be tested on her progress with wind natured chakra. Her bi-weekly taijutsu examination was also coming up far too quickly for her liking. Then again, nothing was tailored to her liking anymore. There was also no telling when her handler would reappear with his lunch and her rations. In her carefully timed and scheduled day he was the only sporadic thing about it. If she wasn’t training something, well, the collar pressing tightly against her throat reminded her why she would be training. Her handler doled out punishments all too easily.

 She started with a basic kata to warm up. The familiar motions helped sooth the turmoil racing through her mind, the shields she had put up were holding strong and she would like to keep it that way. She could not afford distractions like the White Room and the peace it offered at this moment.

The painstakingly slow speed which she traversed through the set slowly sped up as her muscles ached and groaned less at the exertion. The sun was well above the horizon and her body slick with sweat by the time she finished her physical practice. She then proceeded to run the 52 steps over to the waterfall. Carefully putting one foot in front of the other she reached for the water natured chakra to keep herself afloat. It was slippery, hard to grasp and even harder to hold onto even if it was her primary element. The one time she had been seen using yang had almost caused her to drown.

She walked, then ran a few test circles around the length of the pool before turning to the waterfall. The light coating of wind natured chakra applied to her palms did not stop the slow peeling of her skin from her hands when she stuck them into the flow. Focusing, she collected her chakra, filling from her shoulders all the way down to her fingertips. It strained to get loose but she carefully reined it back in and then let it go. It poured from her fingertips in an uncontrolled burst, Fū barely managed to change the nature to wind at the very last second before it fled her body. Allowing her focus to act as a blade for the wind chakra to grind against and sharpen. A split appeared through the falling water, originating from her open palms and spreading left and right until it encompassed three quarters of the waterfall. The water hung suspended for a moment before crashing back down onto her hands. She flinched away from the water before steeling herself once more and pushing her raw hands back under the torrent. The process kept repeating, the length would vary slightly but it would always hover around the three quarters mark. She would scream in frustration is her throat wasn’t sore from disuse. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had used it for anything other than a jutsu.

A small shock ran through her, signifying her handler’s appearance, just before she was about to have another attempt, the chakra blasted out of her hands in an uncontrollable torrent of half converted energy. Her fingertips bled from the tiny cuts that now littered her hands from the rampaging wind chakra and the shockwave blasted her back away from the waterfall. She still turned, ignoring the stinging pain, and sprinted towards the edge of the barrier where her handler was waiting. He merely grunted at her when she appeared in front of him, sending one last shock through for good measure before speeding through another set of hand signs that unbound the Bijuu chakra for use. He seemed to disappear faster than this morning and she couldn’t blame him, she had been working with the Nanabi’s chakra for just under two years and she still hadn’t gotten used to the dense oppressive feel of the red chakra. He left behind no rations and her stomach gurgled at the loss but it had happened far too many times for her to actually be affected by it. With one more pitiful whine it finally went silent.

The cloak slid over her like a set of skin-tight mesh armour that shinobi favoured, the single tail not corrosive enough to truly eat away at her flesh. The tail disappeared after a moment and two beetle-like wings sprouted from her lower back. The harsh chakra irritating her hands even as the cuts closed and the skin regained its lost layers. She was the only jinchuuriki who alternated between appendages. All the others just gained tails while she alternated between having a tail and gaining a new set of wings. The pair that was currently out twitched a couple of times, itching to properly be used but she fixed herself in place with chakra. Latching onto the ground as deep as she could reach both with yang and her basic grasp of earth chakra. The first, and only, time she had tried to fly with the wings she had been knocked out and woken up with chakra restraining cuffs. The seal was not very particular about what it had deemed as an escape attempt. She had never tried to fly again.

An undertone of malevolence curled through the shroud as another tail slipped through.  Fū had not yet met the Nanabi face to face, she wasn’t sure she wanted to meet the beast that produced this much raw hatred. However, sooner or later it would be expected of her to communicate with the Bijuu. For now she would hold on to the fleeting hope that it would be later.

She stopped before she slipped into her fourth tail, hovering just inside her safe zone of three. Any more and she started to become unstable, easier to anger and worse with logic. That was when she started to get reckless, reckless was a very bad thing for her to be while in the seal. It had caused her too much pain already. She was supposed to practice with the Bijuu shroud not only to build up her resistance but also to learn how to use her jutsu with the Nanabi’s charka. For that, three tails would work just fine. Her hands slowly formed the hands signs for the jutsu, if she got one thing wrong, one finger out of place, this could go bad really quick.

 “ **Hiden: Rinpungakure no Jutsu** ”

Her lungs ballooned and she exhaled a stream of reflective particles. A second eyelid dropped down to cover her eyes, preventing the jutsu from momentarily blinding her. The cloud was twice the size she was aiming for, she grimaced, there was a lot of work to do. **Mōjōrō** was worse, she had almost been caught in the web herself and the only reason she hadn’t was because she had used chakra threads at the last minute to fling it away from her. The net had subsequently burst into flames which consumed it before dying out. **Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba** failed to even form properly, the water just collapsed back onto the ground after being summoned from the surrounding vapour.

The whole problem was that she couldn’t properly regulate the new chakra in her system. She had exceedingly good control for someone her age but the injection of chakra that came with every new tail threw her entire system off. It frustrated her to no end because there were no chakra control exercises for jinchuuriki to practice control with. The trees would be burned right through at high levels and the water would turn into steam unless you had the control necessary to smooth the haze into a crisp shroud. Which you couldn’t do without the chakra control geared to the number of tails you currently had out. She wanted to scream and cry and break down without having to worry about the pain that would come with it. The agitation caused her wings to begin to buzz but she didn’t care, it was a dangerous attitude, closer to the one she had had before the collar. It was reckless and she didn’t care.

Her control slipped and her feet detached from the ground. Instantly sparks shot off the collar on her neck, the seals lit up a vibrant red not unlike the Nanabi’s chakra. Her entire body jolted like it had been hit by a natural lightning bolt. Fū’s heart skipped a beat and a trail of blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth. Another blast of electricity was sent careening through her body, the world seemed to tip sideways and her eyes fluttered closed. She was out before she hit the ground.

 

There was darkness, only darkness. She was floating in darkness. Slipping between wherever here was and some distant place. She wanted to stay here, stay wrapped in the darkness. What was her name? She couldn’t remember. She didn’t care. The darkness was safe from ~~Takig,~~ _them_ until they found her hiding place and pulled her out. But they couldn’t pull her out this time, no, the darkness covered her entire form no one could find her. She could hide away here forever, _nothing would disturb her_ it whispered _she could stay here for all eternity, never leaving, never seeing_ them _again._ It was hard to ~~resist the darkness~~ . . . wait, why was she trying to resist? It was peaceful here, she hadn’t felt this since, since, since . . . since what? Something was missing, something was wrong, terribly wrong. She lashed out at the darkness but it flowed right back over her, her chakra had disappeared far out of her reach somewhere else. But not the same somewhere else as before. Before? What had there been before the darkness? That’s right, there had been a place, and it had been calling out to her. Now she called for it. Searched the place where it had once been but only found echoes of something gone. The darkness was creeping back around her. Binding her limbs together, she was so tired. She couldn’t fight any longer, there was nothing left to fight for.

A miniature sun blazed into existence. The darkness screeched, pulling away from it, trying to drag her along with it. A voice like the sound of a child’s laughter sounded out from it, _Fū._ That’s right, her name was Fū. How could she have forgotten that? The ball of sunshine and sky beckoned her and strength flowed back into her limbs. She ripped herself away from the darkness that ran when faced with the light, she was a shinobi she did not run from her problems. Fū would face them head on even if it killed her. She reached out to cup the ball of sunshine in her hands and suddenly she was elsewhere.

It was warm here, she hadn’t even realized she was cold up until that moment. The brightness seared her eyes even as the pupils rapidly shrunk in an effort to keep out the light. Her eyes were squeezed shut but it was still so _bright._ It was like transitioning from her prison under the tree to Taki when the sun was well up. The comparison made her want to throw up. Bile rose in her mouth but she forced it back down, curling in on herself even as a shadow fell over her. She flinched back from the contact, ready for the shock that would come afterwards. Except the shock never came, instead, a pair of hands reached under her form and scooped her up, lifting her into the air. There was no sparks to burn her neck flying from the collar on her throat, no more pain except the already aching muscles and bones.

The hands laid her carefully down, on a soft surface before something was pulled over everything except her head. If she had any energy she would have fought the bindings that ensnared her body, even if it would cause her so much more pain later but she could barely groan let alone move. Her mind blanked out as she fell into an almost sleep. Sometimes snippets of a conversation would reach her through the haze but nothing substantial.

“. . . Round her neck, layered in. . . . ”

“. . . Been like this for days when. . ?”

“. . . Blocked since . . . meltdown. . .”

“. . . Let this happen!”

Slowly the world came back into focus. Her eyes opened once. Twice. Three times and then stayed blinking in the bright white light. A few seconds passed before she suddenly sat bolt upright, throwing out every curse she had ever heard. She was in the White Room! The Sage dammed White Room! She had just spent the last few years of her life specifically avoiding even sending a stray thought there and now she was in the actual room.

“Huh, those are some new ones” She turned her head to see Naruto the little adorable kid that he is staring up at here, right behind him was Yugito.

“Great” Yugito’s voice was as dry as the deserts of wind country “Like the four year old didn’t know enough of those already”

“That’s not fair, Roushi swears all the time”

“Yeah, but he still swears on things like the seven gods of luck which isn’t exactly vulgar for your ears. I still haven’t figured out just how you learned half the words in your new vocabulary.”

“Would you believe me if I said a little turtle told me?” a cheeky grin was plastered on his face

“I’m going to kill that baby-faced Kage one day”

“I would like to see you try” said person responded, stepping out of their circle “I see she’s up”

Yagura gestured towards the frozen girl still lying in the bed that someone had manifested. She squeaked as all three people turned to look at her again.

“Uh, how long was I out?” she tried

“It’s been six days since you popped in randomly on the floor, that’s almost a full chopstick cycle”

Fū. . . Was not even going to touch that statement. “Six days! I have to get back out, I’m dead I’m so dead” she stopped short, halfway out of the bed “My throat doesn’t hurt” she reached up to touch her neck and same as always the leather band was still there. Her eyes blurred with tears that she furiously blinked away.

“Yeah, what is that? You’ve engrained it so deep into your mindscape that we couldn’t even take it off when we tried”

Fū said absolutely nothing, forcing her mental form to fade into her mindscape and away from the White Room. The once beautiful forest was withering, a third of it was just gone. The fall of water into the stream was sluggish and the only thing not touched by the destruction was the forest temple. Even her shimmering shields were torn in places, giving the sky an odd layered effect. She couldn’t bring herself to venture towards the temple that she knew was a prison for the Nanabi and chose to simply sink back into blissful unconsciousness.

The next time she woke it was to a soft voice weaving its way through the cracks in her mental barriers. Naruto’s voice was so full of energy that Fū wished she could take just a little for herself to heal the aches and pains still buried deep in her mind.

“An’ Gaara’s getting better at meditating, Yu-san says I need more practice but it’s _boring_ just sitting around and doing nothing. Han dropped into the White Room yesterday after you left. He wanted to tell you he was glad you had woken up but he couldn’t reach you. They say that I can because you called out to me and I accidentally brought you t’ the White Room but I dunno. Apparently Yu-san did something like that before but different somehow.” the voice paused for a moment “Are you okay? I mean of course you’re not okay, you were unconscious in the White Room and you have something around your neck but you know you can talk to us right? I’ve kinda missed you since you started blocking us. I’ll come back tomorrow so we can talk again alright. Bye!” All Fū could do was shrink into a smaller ball as some of the sunshine drained from her world. Sleep followed not long afterwards.

There was no telling just how much time had passed, she had drifted in and out of the blissful emptiness of sleep constantly. The sun never moved and there was no way to tell the passage of time other than Naruto’s visits. Sometimes she awoke just before them, other times it was right in the middle and then some times she would wake up and he wouldn’t be there at all. She grew to look forward to his visits, waiting for the sun to brighten once more. And slowly, she collected the warmth he brought with him, the sun stayed brighter and brighter after each visit until it could finally keep her warm on its own once more.

Piece by piece she slowly unwove the outermost layers of her shields. The one blocking all noise from coming in. The meaningless pieces of conversation tossed back and forth between the other jinchuuriki’s helped sooth the raw hurt in her soul. The festering pain and bitterness slowly dissolved as more and more of the shields came down. At some point her own presence had become visible to the others, she didn’t know when it was but Naruto soon started dragging the others into his conversations with her. He brought Han first, _whispering grass in the wind_ that spoke few words but was there all the same. Yugito came next. Her _stinging blue fire_ matching the obvious irritation in which she spoke to the other girl. Utakata appeared alone one time, just sitting near her door blowing bubbles. It was . . . soothing.

 Then came the day when the trees were no longer dying and the water was running over rocks and sliding over sand with full force once more. That was the day she appeared in the White Room once more, this time of her own volition. Naruto was there in an instant launching himself at her in a flying tackle hug that knocked her off her feet. Yugito appeared, grabbing the five year old by the collar of his shirt and pulling him off of her. Fū offered the other girl a smile which only received a fond eye roll in response.

Roushi had appeared next, making sure that everyone didn’t just suddenly pop in all at once. It was only a few minutes later that he enquired in a carefully worded question if he could see the collar around her neck. She anchored herself in the steady, blinding presence of the ball of energy next to her before nodding. Fū almost flinched away when he reached out a hand to run his fingers over the design carefully worked into the hard leather. It only took a minute for Roushi to figure out exactly what the collar was.

“It’s not actually here, that’s why your throat doesn’t hurt” he explained “it’s a manifestation of the trauma you’ve been through”

“You sound like a phycologist” she joked weakly

“Been to them often enough to sound professional at least” he winked at her, soothing her fraying nerves.

“So can we get it off her?” Naruto piped up

“No” Roushi said gravely, the mood diving once more “only she can get rid of it here in the White Room and last I checked none of us know any sealing. You’d have to be extremely proficient to modify this enough to come off in the material world. Besides who would do the modifications? We can’t exactly waltz into Taki now can we?”

“Oh,” Naruto looked down for a moment before turning his head up once more to face her “Then I’ll just have to learn seals myself, then we can get the collar off you. I promise.”

“Thank you” she whispered

Then her form started to shimmer. White sparks danced up from the floor surrounding her, it was rising fast towards her waist.

“What’s happening?!” she cried out

“Listen to me” she forced her panicked eyes to meet Roushi’s “You’re body is finally waking up from the coma it forced itself into. We can’t help you in Taki but your Bijuu can. Talk to them, from what I know. . .”

The rest of what he was saying was cut off as her consciousness was swept back to the material world. Her throat was sore, limbs were weakened to the point where it was hard to stand but she was definitely awake. Who knows how long whatever new routine that would be established would last but at least this time she would have people with her all the way. She would also have someone working to free for the first time since that damn collar had been put on her. It wasn’t perfect but perfect was the unattainable dream of a life she had before Utakata’s meltdown. She wasn’t that girl now, she didn’t think she ever could be again.

She didn’t care about that fact anymore. There were other, more important things to care for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> List of jutsu translation:  
> Hiden: Hiding in Scale Powder Technique  
> Blue Joro Spider  
> Takigakure Style: Watercutting Sword
> 
> Yugito cannot admit when she cares for someone, even when it is totally obvious that she does. Also Fū! Basically Taki's council saw that the Bijuu was attempting to take over and used that as an excuse to turn her into a weapon. Village councils suck 90% of the time.
> 
> See you next Monday!


	4. Moving Onwards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto gets his own place
> 
> and
> 
> The Kyuubi finally makes an appearence

Naruto’s birthday fell on the festival of the Kyuubi’s defeat and consecutive sealing (though the latter fact was not supposed to be common knowledge). This meant that while no one was actively celebrating his birthday, there would always be cheering and celebrations. It also meant that Naruto would not, by any means, be allowed to go into or near the festival. However, due to his constant sneaking out, someone had to watch him on that day. So it was probably a good thing that he was always supposed to spend his birthday with the Hokage.

Naruto, being four, didn’t really quite end up realizing what was going on until he turned five. For his first through third birthdays he was either sleeping or crawling/ running around. On his fourth birthday he shared a cup of tea with the Hokage before retreating to an empty room for the rest of the day. This room was much more comfortable than the room he stayed in at the orphanage. It had a couch, proper bed, and a crate of toys over in one corner. He would be taken there by ANBU in the middle of the night and he would be put back into the orphanage the next one. For a toddler Naruto this worked astoundingly well. Then came his fifth birthday and he finally realized something else the room had and something it didn’t have.

The walls of the room were covered in invisible seals. Meant to hide his presence and make it so nothing could get in, so nothing could find him. Even a skilled Yamanka would not be able to slip into the room in dream form. Unfortunately for Naruto, seals like that don’t discriminate much. They rarely do. The seal matrix wasn’t supposed to protect him from harm, more, cut him off from almost anything not in the room. There was even a chakra lock and air filtration seal on the _door_ for kami’s sake. And, according to the seals, the White Room was not supposed to be able to reach into the guarded space. Never mind that it wasn’t even in the material.

The previous years, Naruto didn’t have a reason to consistently drop into the White Room every night. He was still exploring the nooks and crannies of his own mindscape at the time. Gaara’s visits had still been sporadic and Yu-san hadn’t started teaching him. So it came as a great shock to him that he _couldn’t._

The glowing section of hallway was still there, but it had . . . dimmed. It was less present, like it had been before he had first entered the room (though he couldn’t remember that time). He could barely catch snippets of thoughts when he concentrated let alone reach the White Room. This became readily apparent when he was talking with Yugito about what ANBU was and did, other than catching him, when he was forcibly ejected from the room. He was knocked awake by the backlash only to find himself in the same room that he did every birthday. When he tried to skim the surface-layer thoughts from the mindscape, the walls lit up a brilliant blue. Naruto’s eyes trailed over the interconnecting labyrinth of curves and lines. The sizes of the kanji varied with the bigger ones glowing brighter and the smaller ones slightly dimmer. Some parts overflowed into others yet still managed to not break anything and boy was that impressive. Naruto had an extremely limited knowledge of seals but this was obviously made by a master and would need a master to modify them. Naruto was the farthest thing from a master, if he was then he could help Gaara with his nightmares or make Fū stop hiding in her mindscape.

He frantically tried to open the door, to get away from the mass of seals but it refused to budge. He had no lock picks and even if he did the door probably required some sort of chakra lock whatever that was and he had no way of getting around that. So, in the face of his connection being cut off he did the only reasonable thing that a five year old would. He went into the deepest meditation he could manage and proceeded to pound on the wall and scream every curse he knew at it. Even some of the new ones he had picked up from Fū and the weird ones from Roushi. There was no lock to pick on the door, or window to open. Wait . . . a window! His racing train of thoughts screeched to a halt. If he couldn’t open the door he would just go out the window!

He flew out of the bed into the middle of the room, searching for the window that was his ticket to freedom. Except . . . there wasn’t one. That was what was missing from the room, a window. Naruto’s plan crumbled to ashes. He was stuck, cut off from the _stinging blue fire_ of Yu-san. Han’s silent but steady _whispering grass in the wind._ Yagura’s _brine on a sunken ship_ , B’s _black running through water,_ Utakata’s _reflection on the surface of a bubble,_ and Roushi’s _ancient lava under cooled rock._ Away from Gaara’s miniature model of Suna that had been the first gift he had ever received. Away from trying to convince Fū to come back out and visit the White Room once again (He wasn’t even sure if she heard him, she hadn’t been there for over two years save for the six days she spent unconscious). His head was so . . . empty. Perhaps it wasn’t the first time it had been since he had become a jinchuuriki (There had apparently be four others time) but it was the first time he realised it.

It wasn’t a fun thing. There was no presences hovering just out of reach in the back of his mind. Even when they weren’t happy, when they were bitter, lonely, sad, or angry, which was a lot more of the time than Naruto would like, they were still there. That’s why he could bear his forced solitude, why he could bear his original one hour outside just sitting in the dirt while the other kids avoided him like he was infectious. How he got through having to shove a pillow over his ears to block out the other kid’s shrieks of laughter. He saw the kids slowly disappearing one by one, replaced with younger kids and knew that meant that they had been adopted. He also knew that he was never going to be adopted because he was a _jinchuuriki_ and they were _monsters, demons, filth._ But they weren’t. Gaara had the kindest heart out of all of them, even when the Ichibi attempted to kill everyone he helped. Yugito had the most beautiful laugh if you could get her away from her lethal shinobi mindset. Yagura was the greatest cook in the _world_ even if it was only in the mindscape that he could actually taste it. Roushi could spin the most wonderful tales Naruto had ever heard, accompanied by Han’s pictures formed in the ever-present steam. Utakata had the most wonderful voice, even if he rarely spoke anymore let alone sang. Fū always had the everlasting patience of a saint from what he could remember. And Killer B had taken on the role of his village’s constant protector even if he wasn’t allowed near it and his brother because of it. Naruto couldn’t understand how they could be seen as monsters, how he could be seen as a monster.

Without them, hovering so close and yet so far, it was hard to push away the creeping despair of loneliness. There was no telling how long he sat there, he didn’t count the seconds, and even if he had he probably wouldn’t have been able to keep a consistent tempo anyways. There was no sun to tell him the time by its position in the sky. Naruto only knew that it was a long time after he curled into a ball that the door opened up.

It was only the faintest whisper of a connection that caused him to sit up. The door had made no noise but there was old man Hokage standing in the open door frame.

“Tired are we Naruto-kun?” the old man raised an eyebrow

“Uh, yeah” he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. It wasn’t a _total_ lie, just a little one that contained bits of the truth. Yu-san had always said he was a terrible liar. He hadn’t gotten anymore sleep since he was taken here so he was pretty exhausted but that wasn’t why he had been laying on the bed.

“Well then, I suppose you are too tired to have some tea with me in my office?”

“No!” he tumbled out of the bed “I, uh, mean, I would love to have some . . . tea”

The old man merely gave a small chuckle before turning his back and walking out of the room leaving Naruto to follow him. Naruto scrambled to follow him out of the room, practically tripping over his own legs. An unnoticeable hum that had filled the room disappeared and Naruto was struck by how he hadn’t noticed it before he had left. Or he would have been if the connection to the White Room snapped back into place as soon as he exited.

Currently he could only read Yugito’s presence as her emotions were clouding everyone else’s on the surface. He wouldn’t be able to get a proper read on anyone else without being in either his mindscape or the white room itself. He also didn’t think that Jiji would appreciate him attempting to sleep on the floor of a hallway. So he contented himself with feeling Yu-san’s raging inferno of a presence, so much like those blue fireballs she liked to spit out at Yagura every once in a while. It cooled slightly after his presence was properly sensed but Naruto had no problems believing that a training ground in Kumo was being utterly destroyed at the moment. It was either that or a person was getting destroyed in an attempt to spar with her but Naruto didn’t know who would be crazy enough to do that when she was in a mood like this. Except maybe B.

So he silently shuffled along behind the old man as he was led through the winding hallways of the Hokage’s Tower. Eventually they reached the doors that opened into the old man’s office, passing a secretary that smiled at him before the doors closed behind them.

“Please, sit Naruto-kun” he gestured to one of the many empty chairs scattered around the office.

Choosing an orange armchair next to a potted plant Naruto climbed onto the chair before sitting back and watching the old man set about making tea. The process was a boring one even when Jiji sparked a yellow flame on one of his fingers to boil the water and Naruto quickly zoned out. Killer B had dropped into the White Room since he had last checked. The Hachibi’s jinchuuriki was sending questioning echoes bouncing through the White Room but they were still directed at him. Sticking his tongue out in concentration he pieced together a basic picture of what the seals on the walls had kinds looked like and sent it off. Killer B was silent for a moment for the image of paper with drawings on it appeared. Why was he? Oh. That was a good idea, he could copy down the seals on some paper when he got back to the room. He was about to ask where he would get the paper before movement in the corner of his eye shattered his concentration.

Jiji had moved to get some cups and was currently pouring the tea into them. Naruto made a face, he didn’t actually like tea but he didn’t see Jiji that often and getting out of that room was worth a bit of bitter water. He accepted the cup from the Hokage’s wrinkled hands and took a tentative sip. It tasted horrible but he forced it down anyways, maybe he should ask for some sugar next time. The old man smiled at the face he made before taking a sip of his own.

“So, Naruto-kun how are you enjoying your stay at the orphanage”

“Uh, it’s not too bad, there are other kids,” that didn’t even look at him “and I think I made some friends” did the ANBU count? “It’s pretty okay, ya know” not really.

“I suppose that’s why you’re sneaking out to go wander around the village then” Naruto face fell, busted.

“I thought they didn’t tell you about that”

“And who do you mean by ‘they’?”

Naruto perked up a bit “My friends, at least I think they’re my friends” his face scrunched up “I mean, they always come and find me when I hide, isn’t that what friends do? They play hide an’ seek an’ other stuff like that”

“Yes well, I do believe that you are supposed to tell people when you are playing a game and not just run off” It seemed to Hiruzen that the young boy had inherited Kushina’s logic as well as her attitude.

“I mean, I would, except they never respond. I try to talk to them but then I’m back in tha room and tha room is _boring,_ Jiji, there’s nothing to do in there”

“well I suppose you are getting a bit old to continue living in that orphanage, you’re a big boy now and it just occurred to me that I haven’t given you a birthday present yet” He really wasn’t old enough to be living on his own yet but the matron of the orphanage was threatening to put the boy out on the streets as it was. Civilians really didn’t get the picture that a hidden village was a _dictatorship_ , even if it didn’t always seem that way.

Sarutobi huffed. The Kazekage had it _easy_ , no one would dare question his orders. Then again, he also did send a lot of his more gifted shinobi out on suicide missions. True dictatorship would never work for the leaf anyways.

“Wait, really!” the boy was practically vibrating in his seat

“Yes, well it’s your decision, but you could get a whole apartment to yourself. You would receive a monthly stipend to use for food and clothes. I could show you tomorrow, then maybe you could stop sneaking off”

“Of course Jiji, I promise.” The boy took another sip of his tea before yawning.

“Well it looks like you are quite tired, why don’t we head back to your room and you can get some rest”

“Mhm” the boy said sleepily, his eyes half-way closed.

With a swish of his white robes the Sandaime picked the small boy up and shunshined to just outside the room.  His bones creaked in protest but the Hokage ignored them. Age was a shinobi’s greatest weakness. Pulling the blankets over the boy’s sleeping form Sarutobi could feel his own age weighing down on him. The boy looked so much like his father and acted so much like Kushina. Yet there were very few who looked for the likeness. The village would scorn the boy but they could not physically harm him, and that would have to be enough. Not for the first time he cursed the Yondaime for leaving him to take up the hat once more.

Still, there was no time to dwell on these things, there were arrangements to be made. The apartment would need to be furnished and barrier seals applied in case any civilians tried to break in. The orphan stipend would need to be set up, the ANBU guards would need to be on the lookout for any of Danzo’s ROOT. It would not be the first time the old war hawk had snatched up an unsuspecting orphan and spirited them off to who knows where.

He found himself missing the war. Back when Tobirama-sensei was still alive and things weren’t nearly as complicated as they were now. Politics and paperwork, a Kage’s greatest enemy given form. He turned and walked away.

 

Naruto did not sleep through the night, it had barely been three hours before he jolted away, running from some unseen horror. The silence of the room did nothing to comfort him. His fingers scrabbled uselessly against the faint glowing of the door to the White Room. All it did was light up the walls of the physical room in a light blue. It took long minutes for his breathing to even out and his heart to stop racing against some unseen force. Unbidden, his mind drifted back towards what Killer B had said when he was visiting Jiji and he growled in frustration. There were no pencils or blank paper anywhere! How was he supposed to copy down the pattern, it wasn’t like he could memorise it!

Except, he didn’t have to memorise it, and he didn’t need physical paper, in fact the paper would probably be taken away from him when he left. He groaned at his own stupidity, just because he couldn’t access the White Room anymore didn’t mean that he couldn’t access his mindscape. Hell, he been using it all day to try and reach the White Room! He could just create the paper and pencils there! He appeared in his mindscape right outside the glowing hall, paper and pencil in hand. He cautiously entered it, waiting for the blue to show up but it never did. Sage. It was in the material world! How was he going to be in both places at once, he could barely meditate as it was, let alone with his eyes open! He could lightly skim the edges of the white room to make the walls light up blue but he couldn’t write anything down in the mindscape like that! This was going to take some work.

By the time he opened his eyes the blue had already faded from the walls. A _lot_ of work.

 

The morning found Naruto with dark rings around his eyes that could rival Gaara’s but with a strong sense of accomplishment. He had managed to roughly copy down an entire wall! It wasn’t the clearest thing, with lots of erasure marks but tacked onto the wall near the glowing corridor was five sheets of paper filled with the interlocking strings of kanji. The Sandaime looked faintly amused at Naruto’s explanation of trying to look like a racoon but let the subject drop.

Once more, leaving the room was a great relief. Growing up your whole life with voices in your head made silence unnerving to say the least. The Sandaime walked with him all the way through the streets of Konoha to his new living space. It’s not that he wasn’t grateful, he loved spending time with the old man just talking about random things, but all semblance of subtlety went out the window. At the times when he had snuck out to wander around Konoha he had kept his head down. Literally. Adults looked down about as much as they looked up, which was to say rarely.  His blond hair drew some attention but people rarely looked at his face, which was exactly why people hadn’t figured out that the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was walking through the crowds. Walking with the Hokage, however, meant attention, lots and lots of attention. The old man was practically a celebrity, so people naturally paid lots of attention to the blond haired boy walking beside him.

Naruto could see the exact moment on each person’s face as they realized who he was, the moment disgust and revulsion replaced admiration. He tried not to let it bother him, he knew this was coming, the whispers, the glares aimed at his back. Tried to let them roll right off him like water. Like Yu-san had taught him. It didn’t work, even with the comforting presences in the back of his mind he shrank back in on himself. He didn’t let it show, kept acting oblivious didn’t even faltering in his bouncing steps. As much as they hated him now, if they thought he was intelligent or observant or any quality that could be considered remotely good in a child that would turn to fear. He didn’t want to be feared.

The apartment was rather tiny, he _was_ still a kid, with the same white walls as his old room but the old man assured him it could be painted. There were three small rooms and a closet for hanging up clothes. The first one was a kitchenette equipped with all the basic appliances and a small island to serve as a table. The bedroom contained a futon and desk with a sliding glass door that opened onto a small balcony overlooking the rest of the village. The bathroom was by far the smallest room and Yugito took one peek through the link before declaring that the water pressure for the shower would be shit (she was right). There was more window than wall in the first two rooms but that suited Naruto just fine, he like the sun.

The old man left him with the keys, a small frog purse with his first allowance (he promptly name it Gama-chan), and a warning that he would have to start buying his own food. The food thing was kind of important but there were some other things to get done first. His two extra sets of clothes were hung up, windows were opened, and lightbulbs were tested. _Then_ he went out to buy stuff.

First stop was the paint store, the white walls were too boring for his tastes so it had to go. The colour tags all had cool names like _Eternal Darkness_ for black, _enchanted forest or emerald green? You pick its green morons,_ and for a dark orange there was _not quite pumpkin._ There were other more boring names like _sandcastle_ and _mulberry,_ there was even a nice bright orange called _tiger._ The fact that even Utakata joined in on the unanimous NO was probably what swayed him away from that one. He grumbled a bit because it was _his_ apartment and not theirs but anything that got more than two of the other jinchuurikis talking at once he could put up with. He ended up getting three different colours, one for each room. The kitchen would be a beige colour called _hazel wood,_ he thought it was boring but he got his bedroom a bright gold called _honey_ out of it so he could deal. The bathroom was a light sky blue called _morning dew_ , it was a weird name because as far as he could tell dew was supposed to be clear, but hey, he didn’t name it. His closet would have to stay white for now he could probably get something to put on the walls eventually, he just didn’t have to time to pick something before he had to go. He’d chosen a shop out of the way enough that the news about him hadn’t yet reached them but it was only a matter of time before it did. He got a reasonably priced deal out of the paint and a package of brushes and paint rolls as it was so he couldn’t complain. They could’ve refused to sell to him, which would have sucked.

Naruto soon realized that painting was harder than it looked, seriously, how hard could it possibly be? You dipped the brush in the paint and moved it back and forth across the wall. To answer his question: very hard. The paint dripped and the coat was uneven, the smell was atrocious and Naruto was suddenly extremely glad he had so many windows. The other jinchuuriki were of very little help, somehow not a single one of them had ever had to paint anything. Somehow he cobbled something together that managed to look okay, it was thicker in some places than others which made the colour lighter or darker depending on the area. Paint was splattered on the floor and all over his clothes and face and hair but the end product wasn’t terrible. What was terrible was the shower, the hot water ran out ten minutes in and just water did little to get rid of the paint in his hair.

The sun was sinking low on the horizon when Naruto’s stomach let out a long growl. He froze, crap, he totally forgot to buy food earlier, the market would be closed by now _and_ he skipped lunch. He’d have to get food from _somewhere_ but only restaurants would be open late at night. Restaurants that could and would reserve the right to refuse customers. He stomach gave another protest and he caved. It was better to try and possibly get lucky than not have anything at all.

Unfortunately, luck was not on his side that night. It started raining not five minutes after he left his apartment. He didn’t even bother going for the fancy looking restaurants, those would refuse him just so they wouldn’t lose customers. He had been kicked out of six different places before his luck finally came back from its coffee break.

It was a simple ramen stand run by an old man with only seven seats, all of which were empty. He pulled himself up onto the closest one, readying himself for the yell to get out that would inevitably come. But it didn’t. Instead, all he was met with was silence, Naruto deflated, the silence was almost as bad as the yelling. He readied himself to leave and head back into the rain when a steaming bowl of ramen was placed in front of him. He looked up in shock at the old man smiling down at him.

“No kid should be out in the rain on an empty stomach, it’s on the house” he turned back to the sink, dishcloth in hand.

Naruto sat frozen for a second before quickly breaking apart the chopsticks “itadakimasu”

The hot liquid burned his throat and tongue but it was still the best thing he had ever tasted. Yagura had nothing on this. When he finished the first bowl he started fishing around Gama-chan for some money to buy a second one when another bowl was placed on the counter. There was that same smile still plastered on the old man’s face. Yet again, the bowl of ramen was on the house. The smile and food began to fill a hole in Naruto’s heart that he hadn’t even known was there. Sure he had eight other people living in his head and he in theirs but they couldn’t help him paint his apartment, couldn’t make food in his new kitchen, and couldn’t complain about the water pressure in the shower. So he stayed there, at the ramen stand, long after closing time. Just sitting.

 

The months dragged on and the apartment began to feel more like a proper home. Every four weeks, old man Hokage would stop by with his allowance and some tea. They would talk about what had happened in Naruto’s life for the past month and he would tell tales of great battles and the other Hokages. Naruto’s closet became home to a new addition of a blue shirt, orange vest, and black pants. The balcony slowly filled up with random pots and plants that he had found on market days. Turning the dull brown of the wood into a colourful mess of greens, pinks, reds, purples, and yellows. Naruto quickly learned how to use the communal washing and drying machine for the building seeing how his clothes always seemed to get covered in mud. Which was totally _not his fault_. The cupboards filled with mismatched mugs, plates, bowls, and cooking utensils. Nine handmade coasters appeared on the island, each one a careful recreation of a circle from the White Room. Woven blankets were carefully laid on the floor, overlapping at parts, in some sort of makeshift carpet. Blown glass balls flecked with colour were strung up in the kitchen window with pieces of abandoned ninja wire. The cabinet behind the bathroom mirror went through a variety of shampoo and conditioner until he finally found a mix he liked enough to keep buying. The balcony doors became a hanging place for various trinkets and the light that passed through them scattered tiny rainbows across the room. The whole place was littered with candles for when it got too dark at night to see even with his enhanced vision. Naruto even touched up the paint eventually so it looked a little less sloppy at the edges.

He kept going back to Ichiraku’s ramen at least twice every week, more if he had run out of money and needed a place to eat. The old man’s name was Teuchi and he ran the stand with his daughter Ayame. She was around Yu-san’s age but had brown hair instead of blond, she was also softer. Lacking the edge that all the other jinchuuriki seemed to possess, old man Hokage had it as well. They were always there if Naruto needed a place to hide and his apartment got too stifling.

He spent the next five months trying to coax Fū back out of her mindscape before she finally appeared. Afterwards she started coming back more, at least once every week. She was different from what he remembered, less outspoken and excitable but the old spark was still there. Sometimes she flinched away when someone reached out to touch her but she was getting better. Her caramel eyes stopped being so lifeless and the collar around her neck seemed less and less real every month. It was still very much so present, but you could see her forget about it at some times. She would close right back up as soon as she remembered but that was worth those small moments of sparkling joy.

Now, more so than ever after Fū came back, he poured over those sheets in his head. Naruto didn’t dare copy them down onto actual paper, he held no illusions that the ANBU guard was actually gone. It was just much easier to keep track of him now that streets emptied whenever he came near. Still, the kanji made no sense. They were formatted in a weird way and this was professional level stuff, not the very beginner level that wouldn’t be quite so ‘brain turning to mush’ confusing.

Life proceeded to march onwards and dragged Naruto with it, he didn’t fight too hard to cling to the past. It was gone now. He was stuck in the present and he could only try his hardest so that he could help the other jinchuuriki in some way in the future.

 

* * *

 

For six long years the Kyuubi no Yoko had been stuck in the cage of his newest jinchuuriki. It had been six years since he had finally broken free of that human they called Kushina. Kurama had barely been able to feel the wind ruffle his fur, for the natural energy curl around him desperately trying to fill the imbalance that came from being away from it for over a century. All he had felt was rage, he wanted to atomize the village that had kept him trapped all those years. Then everything had faded into a red haze. An Uchiha. Even after years spent searching his memories, that night only appeared in bits and pieces scattered through the red. He knew that there had been a Bijuudama released, could feel the residual energy even from this seal. A Bijuudama was the most powerful weapon that the Bijuu had at their disposal, the effects of it would be felt for much longer than this village would ever realize. 

The haze had disappeared as quickly as it had come, whoever had bound him to their will had been forced to release him. Because of this, it took him far too long to realize what was happening. The Shinigami was there. Any rational thought that he may have retained deserted him. The natural energy in the clearing shrunk away from its unnatural presence that sucked the very life out of the world. The natural order was to take and give in equal parts, humans defied that law. Always taking more than they gave back until the day they breathed their last at which point their bodies gave everything back to the land. But if the humans defied the law, the Shinigami spat in its face. It simply took from the world, through the hands of the shinobi that did his work to tip the balance in his favour or through its own influence. It was always worse when it was summoned, scratch the Bijuudama, it would take centuries for the world to properly recover from this. That was only if no one else decided to bring the Shinigami into the material in that time. Kurama didn’t know what fool had summoned him to the mortal realm but their soul would rot in its stomach for all eternity as penance.

Then the tearing began. He was the most powerful of the Bijuu, there was very little that could truly harm him and this was apparently one of such things. It was pulling him in two separate directions. His Yin towards the Shinigami and his Yang towards a new seal.

He reared back, instinct telling him to get away, to do something before half of him was lost forever but the chains of his previous jinchuuriki bound him tightly to a single spot. Then his attention switched to a different target, the mewling human child that was to be his latest prison. He lashed out, not even bothering to aim properly in his frenzied state. The kit would die and the seal would be broken and he could turn the village into a crater once and for all. Then he could retreat back to the sage realms, to lick his wounds and plot. It did not turn out that way. The claw was stopped inches from the new container by the Namikaze and his previous jinchuuriki. Then there was a terrible ripping noise, and Kurama was _torn_ in half. His tails went into a frenzy, reaching desperately for their other halves, barely able to collect the pieces that were hanging behind before the seal pulled him into the brat. It was like trying to stuff an ocean into a kettle, even with half his power Kurama was still the greatest of the Bijuu. Were it not for the flexibility of an infant’s mind and an Uzumaki’s natural vitality the seal would have shattered. His energy would have joined with the earth once more for centuries to correct the imbalance before he would have been able to collect himself once more. 

Now he was stuck in a new host, one that was bound to his own energy unless the seal could be unraveled before death. His yin half was missing, sealed in the stomach of the Shinigami and he was left with only fumes to curl around in hopes that it would regenerate eventually. Indeed, it would have taken hundreds if not thousands of years for his yin half to be accessible once more. Chakra was a thing regained by using the chakra one currently had to replicate more of it, thus it was a thing of exponential increase. If it took him a thousand years to fully regain his yin half, for nine hundreds of those it would be unable to be used for anything except to attempt balance him. This was what would have happened if the Namikaze hadn’t used this particular seal to split and imprison him once more. Not only was the seal linked to the Shinigami that held onto almost the entirety of his yin half but it was much closer to the original seals. Still primitive and nowhere near the world altering power that the original seals held but much closer than the ones previously used to bind him. Those seals had held more finesse, long days spent getting the formula just right and leaving no loopholes. Kurama was above all a kitsune, they were tricksters by nature. If there had been a loophole he would have found it. Those intricacies were what had held him under the crushing weight of Mito’s ocean and chained to Kushina’s molten sun. This seal was a simple gate of metal bars, the water representing his host’s chakra pool. Perhaps it was this exact reason that nearly a human month after he was sealed something changed.

The Kyuubi’s influence did not extend past the mindscape, the seal was designed so that nothing, no external energy could get through the seal. This was to the benefit that no sharingan eyes could capture him once more while he was defenseless inside a host. It also rejected the natural energy that ran through all things, including himself and the other Bijuu. They moved with the flow of the earth, it was what had given them their ability to change size and sense the world around them in the first place. Being sealed was like being turned deaf, blind, and having all of your nerve endings ripped out so you could no longer feel anything at all. But something akin to the makeup of the seal, something ancient, had wormed its way into the infants head. And now it had opened up.

It was only a few drops, but Kurama could work with that, he _had_ worked with so little before. Turning a burned forest that had been reduced to ashes into what was now called Zenshō forest. The nature chakra was used to widen the tiny gap until a steady trickle of nature chakra was pouring through. The outside world was drawn into him, opening up his senses once more and then flowing right back out of him. The constant flow of nature chakra was what kept the crack open while he turned his attention to the gate once more. Instead of clashing against the flimsy looking bars the Kyuubi followed the remaining traces of yin energy back to the source itself.

Bijuu did not sleep in the sense that humans did, with their smothering blackness needed for rejuvenation of the body and mind. They simply closed their eyes, ridding themselves of any extraneous senses before letting the remaining stretch out into the world around them. Down the earthen crust and into the molten layers of the planet. Through the humming particles of gas, visible light, radiation, and dust. Over the roiling ocean and seeing the chakra of every living thing lit up like miniature versions of the stars that were strung together in the sky overhead. Now he followed a similar string of energy that was left behind in the immaterial by his tattered other half.

He gathered those pieces, it took time to find and assimilate each separate one as the Shinigami took its trip across the elemental nations. Seasons passed, the life song of trees and plants and grass murmured a familiar tune of earth and sky before they returned to that which they had come from. Winter approached like the creeping tendrils of frost, the trees drew their chakra back into their cores in preparation of the cold days to come. The energy of the sun dimmed and the earth went into something akin to a slumber. The clouds and wind stayed to play. Dropping and swirling around sparkling frozen water from the Kanashii Ocean. When spring came millions of lights flared up across the Elemental Nations, the quiet unfurling of new life. The monsoons came and went, bringing foreign chakra from all parts of the continent to nourish the plants and animals of the fire country. Summer came and went in a burst of heat and colour, pinks, blues, and greens burst from the surrounding nature. Fall brought a blaze of red, orange, and yellow so reminiscent of the forests that he used to call home. The years cycled on like this as Kurama slowly regained his chakra. The flow of senjutsu was like a dripping tap, enough to not die from thirst but nowhere near enough to wash ones hands or take a shower in. The jagged edges his blood red coat had gained over the years smoothed out, his colouring faded to a more burnt color, still very much red. Then, after six years, a door he hadn’t even known had been there disappeared and his jailer finally made an appearance.

Over the course of the human brat’s life his mindscape had changed from the bright walls of a labyrinth into the stone sewers of Konoha. The maze-like shape had stayed the same but the light had dimmed, and cracked stone soon crawled up the walls like some kind of ivy. His jailer had discovered the sewers in the year he had spent running and hiding from the _tea leaves_ and _Okami’s lightning_ of his personal guard. There were other of course, Kurama would let out a snarl every time the _forest of broken soul_ that felt similar to that fool Hashirama came close. The sewers had become his jinchuuriki’s hiding place for whenever he truly didn’t want the ANBU guard finding him. For once the mutilated seals that were commonplace now came in handy, purifying the air in the material world’s sewers which made so the scent of human excrement never reached his nose. The sewers themselves formed a network under the city of Konoha not unlike the brat’s mind (He made a note to be careful to destroy the entire network when he was released, there would be no survivors of his wrath when he destroyed the wretched village). The water level rose until the Kyuubi couldn’t put his head down on the ground without getting his chin sopping wet, even with the raised platform.

His jailer was coming closing now, making their way through the mess of dead ends and loops his subconscious had conjured to keep him away from the Kyuubi. The air from the rest of the mindscape reached Kurama when the boy did. It was cool air from a spring forest just after rain had come and the ground was soft beneath your feet. Individual scents of flowers from the boy’s garden could also be picked out, but were still mixed into the bigger scent of life. Up until that point he hadn’t even realized that the air had gone stale after these short years cut off from the rest of the mindscape. One of his tails shifted at the scent of not long forgotten freedom. The boy’s eyes watched the darkness ripple, too far to reach with his claws and crush the boy’s form. The Kyuubi slid a single red eye open to gaze at the child before him. The jinchuuriki’s presence was still in its fledgling state, not properly solidified it was like wisps of the outside world. _Sunshine, dancing lake, hidden garden._ It bounced, flip flopping between states not solid enough for him to properly grasp. But there were other presences he could find, clinging to him like ghosts not yet ready to leave their loved ones. The most prominent one was _stinging blue fire,_ then there was _damp stone sky,_ followed by another non-settled presence that felt of sands and Suna. There were other, fainter, presences mixed in but with the limited amount of nature chakra he had access to they couldn’t be properly untangled from each other. It was curious, he hadn’t sensed those presences in close contact with the human. This could be a grand puzzle for him to figure out but still, it was a problem for another time. He let a single tail smash against the bars of his cell, maybe it would scare the human away and he could get back to searching for his missing half. Oh Sage, that sounded sappy. He closed his eye.

“Oi, don’t ignore me you stupid fox!”                            

The Kyuubi opened his eye once more, staring down at the tiny child before him. The words had been shouted with the typically brashness he would expect from Kushina’s spawn. Yet, there was an undercurrent of something he couldn’t identify. Anger? Irritation? Sadness? From behind the seal he couldn’t tell. He settled with responding instead, the human clearly wouldn’t leave until it had gotten one out of him.

~ _so you know what I am then, human? ~_   

“Yeah, you’re the nine tailed fox! The others talk about you sometimes.”

That gave him a pause. No one in the village would speak of him to the brat, the old monkey summoner might, but the boy was still young for a human so it couldn’t have been him. There were very few people that would be able to speak of jinchuuriki freely so that only left. . . No, it couldn’t be that. Kurama had felt it fracture during one of the human’s pathetic wars, but then again, what else could it be?

~ _You’re referring to that infernal link that you jinchuuriki share, I thought it had disappeared decades ago~_

The boy stopped for a moment, mouthing out ‘referring’ unconsciously while his brows furrowed before he shook his head and looked back up at him.

“Well obviously not”

The Kyuubi _growled._ It was a harsh, guttural sound like one might hear in a rabid animal. How _dare_ this pitiful human claim superiority over a being such as _him._ He had lived for thousands of years, seen empires rise and crumble, he was a being made of chakra while this brat had barely enough to make his snout wet.

~ _I have little patience for your kind, leave human~_

He sent a wave of what little yin chakra he had collected out from the cage and flung the human from his mindscape. This particular prison was not designed to contain his yin chakra as well, it allowed him some liberties that he previously did not have. The chakra rebounds back to him, a little worse for wear and the Kyuubi settles back into sleep. The boy does not come back that night.

 

Kurama had thought that would have been the end of it, at least, until the boy became a shinobi and started to demand his chakra. That was not the end of it. The very next night the boy appeared once more only for the Kyuubi to fling him back out again. Then he settled back to searching the world for the Shinigami. The boy appeared the next night and the next and the one after that as well, Kyuubi just kept flinging him back out. It became a routine of sorts, an extremely annoying routine but something to mark the passage of time with other than the fluctuating of the seasons. The boy would appear and then would be flung out before he could say a word, it was amusing to see the look of irritation on the human’s face moments before the yin wave hit him. The system worked, until it didn’t. Until Kurama finally realizes that not all of the yin chakra was being rebounded back at him. Until he’s losing yin faster than he’s gaining it. So something has to change, to give where it previously held strong. The boy won’t stop coming so it lies to him to be the one to back down. It was humiliating, conceding to a human child when he was a being of unimaginable power.

Except, he wasn’t anymore. The small amount of yin chakra he had was barely enough to fight against the overwhelming tide of yang. The constant ebb and flow of nature may help but it could only do so much. To be wasting what little he had to block the child from his cage was illogical. So concede he will.

Kurama graciously allows the boy to appear and stay in the cage for a bit, the pest should be grateful for that. The supposed gratitude the human should feel did not stop him from shouting and disrupting Kurama’s concentration. The Kyuubi flings the boy from his mindscape with a smaller blast than usual. It won’t keep the boy out for much longer if he attempts to get in but the act is soothing. The boy does not come back until the next night and for that Kurama is grateful, even though he will never voice his gratitude to anyone.

The boy learns quickly to be quiet after that, it takes time but the shouting slows to a minimum of once a night, then a couple of days, then a week, a month. Then it disappears entirely. He does not talk _to_ the Kyuubi, more _at_ the giant fox. While Kurama naps the boy would ramble about his day and the previous night after he had left or been forced out and back into his body.  He learns about the boy’s teacher, Matabi’s jinchuuriki, Yugito. Of a young boy called Gaara who could not sleep in fear of Shukaku taking over and slaughtering his family. The Kyuubi almost smiled at the thought of the havoc he could wreck on the village if the seal had the leniencies as the one binding his youngest sibling. The child spoke of a girl with bright green hair who had a collar binding her as much as her Bijuu was bound in the seal. Chōmei was the most gentle and caring of the tailed beasts, after Konoha was razed Takigakure would soon follow. He hears of Saiken, Son Gokū, Kokuō, Isobu, and Gyūki as well. Perhaps not directly but it is easy to see their influence on their current jinchuuriki. It has been too long since he has heard of his siblings, since he has cared to seek them out even if they are not able to meet all together.

Some nights, especially the ones where his siblings were directly mentioned, he watches his jinchuuriki. Only ever with one eye, the other closed in his endless search. Even on those nights Kurama still didn’t speak, complacent to watch and listen. This became the new routine between the two of them, the nights that the boy would be flung out dwindled and the nights he left voluntarily steadily rose. It became a rare event as opposed to a common one. Summer changed into autumn and with the falling of the leaves came a whole slew of information about plants. It was nothing that Kurama didn’t already know but it was odd to see a human take such an interest in the natural world. He spoke of the multi-coloured marigolds that would stay until the first frost came, the soft pink twinspur that had flourished in the sunny pot it had been placed in. Autumn crocus, strawflower, nemesia, hanging blue lobelia, along with a variety of ferns and other leafy plants. He was halfway through a description of one of the butterflies his new osteospermum that had bright purple, pinwheel petals had attracted when Kurama finally spoke once more.

~ _why do you ceaselessly return to my cage human, what it is you seek to gain from this mindless interaction?_ ~

The boy paused mid-sentence, he seemed to be considering his answer for a few moments before opening his mouth to respond.

“You remind me of someone I know, actually. . .” he paused once more “Two someone’s, you’re like them in different ways but you can see it if you squint” the boy proceeded to mime the action

~ _I do not need your pity, brat_ ~

“No, it’s not pity. You’re not the type to appreciate pity. I’m also not the type to spend long hours trying to figure out exactly what it is so that’s all I got, you can try and puzzle it out if you like.”

They lapsed back into silence after that, after an indeterminable amount of time spent like this Kurama finally spoke once more.

~ _what is your name human?_ ~

The boy looked quite shocked at this “Oh, you didn’t know? Well, obviously you didn’t know otherwise you wouldn’t be asking, I had just assumed that you had known because the others. . .” he trailed off at the growl Kurama gave, telling him to get on with it. “Uh, Naruto, my name’s Naruto. What’s yours?”

Both Kurama’s eyes opened from the sheer shock of being asked that question. It had been a long time since someone had asked for his name, his previous two jailers certainly didn’t, they probably hadn’t even know he’d had one. The boy, Naruto, apparently took this as a bad sign as he immediately back-pedalled.

“Not that you have to tell me or anything. I know you guys are pretty protective of your names and such I only know you have one because Yagura also calls the three tails Isobu and Yu-san has slipped up and called the Nibi, Matabi before. But it still makes sense because even plants have names so why wouldn’t the Bijuu. An’I’msorryforbuggingyoumisterfox,pleasedon’eatme,bye!”

 The boy squeaked out the last part and immediately fled the mindscape away from his apparent wrath.  Kurama sat there practically gaping for a bit before resolutely closing his eyes and vowing to pretend that had never happened. The boy had apparently taken a similar vow because he appeared the next night same as always and went on like nothing had changed. But something had changed and Kurama couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to. He _very_ much wanted to ignore it. Still, it was barely a week later when he spoke to Naruto once more.

~ _Kurama_ ~ the boy looked up at him quizzically ~ _you asked what my name was, it is Kurama_ ~

The boy jumped up in celebration, shouting out in joy so loud that it would echo through his entire mindscape before freezing mid-dance. He quickly spun around to face him, bright red.

“Uh, thank you for bestowing this great honour on me Kurama-san”

Kurama did _not_ snort. He most definitely _didn’t_ there was no evidence to prove that he had and it was going to stay that way because there was no evidence to be found. _Yes, something had definitely changed, perhaps not for the worse_ , Kurama mused as his jinchuuriki continued his happy dance in another part of the mindscape. If nothing else the boy was amusing.

After that, Kurama set aside an hour out of every sixteen Naruto spent awake which he dedicated to watching the boy. It was not always at the same time every day but that just gave him more exposure to the different aspects of Naruto’s day. It was interesting to see the interactions with the villagers of Konoha. The humans were fearful of the boy, like he could destroy the village on a whim if he wanted to. The villagers were right to fear the Kyuubi, even if they appeared to think that Naruto was _him_ for some reason, the moment he got out of the seal he would slaughter them all. Naruto, however, was nothing to be feared. He was quite pitiful actually, then again, it wasn’t like Kurama had much experience with children. The first two times he had been sealed, his jailers had at least known how to manipulate chakra. Naruto probably didn’t even know what chakra was. For all of Matabi’s jinchuuriki’s teaching all of it was stuff that a child without chakra could do. Probably so that nobody got suspicious about where Naruto was learning what she taught him. Even Mito had respected the secrecy of the link that bound the jinchuuriki together, not a single non-jinchuuriki had ever known about it. Not even the Kages.

Even so, his jinchuuriki did use chakra. He used it to strengthen his muscles subconsciously and combat whatever mixture of sleep deprivation, poison, and illness he had at the moment. Any normal person would probably have keeled over dead at this point, the healing factor that was given to his jinchuuriki was quite astounding. The only reason that even the constant ANBU guard surrounding the boy hadn’t realized it was because the boy was doing it subconsciously. It was most likely triggered by the nature chakra that Kurama was constantly drawing in and out but the child’s chakra signature had shifted to match the ambient energy of the world. It was an interesting ability that would most likely be lost when the boy properly awoke his chakra coils but it would be interesting to see if Naruto could replicate it when his control would be better than when he first awoke it. This mimicking also had a strange effect on the child’s plants. Kurama could have sworn that fern had actively reached out for the blond. The person in question was totally oblivious to the strange behavior that seemed to draw that plants towards him like a magnate after long enough spent in his care. It was ridiculous because the boy wasn’t even using nature chakra, only mimicking its feel. His passive chakra should not have exhibited the effects that it was! Then again, if someone had told him he and his siblings would be imprisoned in fleshy bags of meat at some point the Kyuubi might just have laughed in their face and let them go for the joke. And wasn’t that a sobering thought. Because no matter how friendly the boy seemed to be, he was still the Kyuubi’s prison. One that was at least twenty times too small for him as well, the first opportunity to leave and he would take it. Never mind that it would most likely kill his jailer, he’d never cared about them before.

 _But this wasn’t before_ Kurama realized a couple weeks later. Something about this perplexing, reality bending, whirlpool of a child had drawn him in, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to fight the current. _We’d drown_ cried the Kyuubi _trapped underwater, the pressure slowly crushing us even though it could never kill us, do we want to go through that again?_ It was a dark reminder of a black time. But Kurama had a reminder of his own. _The child’s water is shallow, we can still stand, and by the time it grows too deep we will have learned to swim._ The Kyuubi fell silent once more at that and Kurama went back to sleep.

He spoke to the blond child again that night, it was a simple question on one of the boy’s plants, the type he normally wouldn’t have bothered asking. He would’ve just taken time to find the answer in the stores of knowledge that filled his mind. Naruto’s face lit up with a blinding smile and Kurama considered the resulting non-stop talking worth it. He looked like a much younger Shukaku for a moment, minus the sand and cursed seal markings. Kurama hadn’t heard from the tanuki since he had attempted to warn him of beings that might see him as the weakest because he only had a singular tail. That conversation hadn’t ended well and Shukaku had stalked off to the deserts of Suna to mope for a couple of centuries. That had ended with him being sealed into a human like all the rest of his siblings. A familiar rage flared up at the thought but was quickly dissipated by the oblivious blond’s unending chatter.

The nightly conversations turned into _actual_ conversations with both parties saying words even if unequally. Kurama began to sleep less and less, the fragments left behind by the tear were miniscule now anyways. Hard to find in a month let alone a couple of hours. The boy began asking questions, but they were only mundane ones. Like, _what’s your favourite colour?_ Or _what food do you like to eat?_ The latter question nearly caused a week long explanation about chakra and its different properties. Kurama went for _sentient mass of energy_ instead, even if it grossly simplified the complexity of chakra. Maybe when the boy had a basic understanding of chakra he would do a bit more of explaining but the child’s teachers could handle the basics. Or Matabi’s host. It became readily apparent that Naruto had been using these small exchanges to build up confidence when he asked a question that had obviously been bugging him.

“Hey, Kurama,” he started “I was talking to the old man recently an’ he said that my parents, uh, were some of the ninja that fought against you. An’ I was wondering if you know anything about them. You probably don’t but it’s worth a shot, I guess.”

Kurama hadn’t been watching Naruto’s most recent visit with the monkey summoner, if he had, he might have been more prepared for the question. As it was, he hesitated. There was no logical explanation as to why he hesitated to tell the boy of his parents, how he personally slaughtered them just to try and kill Naruto. He didn’t care about the boy, it was an amusement or a manipulation of some sort to help set himself free or keep himself entertained until he could do so. Kurama hesitated and Kyuubi surged forth. He told the boy every single gruesome detail, how his own father was the one to seal him into Naruto, condemning him to a life of hatred. How he had tried to kill Naruto himself, no more than an hour old and how instead his parents had leapt in front on his claw. The boy had stared white faced throughout the entire thing, and when he was sure it was done, he ran. Ran from the seal like the Kyuubi knew he would, ran from the words meant to inflict pain that no claws ever would be able to. He ran and the Kyuubi did not know where to, did not care, he had pulled them out of the whirlpool. He would not drown once more.

 

Naruto did not appear the next night.

Or the night after that or the night after that. Kurama resigned himself back to nights scouring for pieces of himself he would never find.

Then, he came back. Kurama couldn’t tell how long it had been since Naruto had been there but something had changed. Had happened.

“Why” the child had said, voice cracking “Why did you kill them?”

The tale took up the rest of the night, he did not question why the boy did not leave for the place with the other jinchuuriki. He told him how it had all started with the Uchiha, Madara, who had used his cursed eyes to bind Kurama to his will. How the Shodaime’s wife Mito Uzumaki, his ancestor from Uzushio, had sealed him inside her. Trapping him under the ocean surrounding her island mindscape. That was the start of jinchuuriki, then the Shodaime had rounded up all the other Bijuu and given them away to the other villages as a balance of power. How they had only turned out to be weapons of mass destruction. How Kushina became his new prison and jailer and fell in love with the fourth Hokage. How the seal weakened during childbirth and another Uchiha had taken the chance to control him once more. Kurama told Naruto about the red haze and waking up only to be torn in half and trapped by chakra chains before he could flee. How he had tried, in one last desperate attempt to free himself by killing the child he was about to be sealed into. There was no shouted questions or demanded answers like there would have been over a year ago. There was just silence, Naruto sat through the entirety of the tale without making a single noise. Then, he faded out of the seal room once more.

He came back once more the very next night.

“I, I’ve done a bit of thinking and I realized that it would probably be a bit hypocritical to hate someone for something that wasn’t exactly their fault. Too many people do that already and I guess it’s hard not to become what is expected of you. I get that now. And I get that you were forced to do some things and did others of your own volition, but I also get that people can change. Maybe a couple thousand year old mass of chakra can too. Just, can you do something for me?”

~ _what?_ ~

“Tell me about them . . .  please”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly before I get into anything else I'd like to thank everyone whose commented or bookmarked or left kudos or even just read the story so far, it gives me the warm fuzzies. So thanks.
> 
> If you couldn’t tell, Kurama is going through a bit of a personality split right now. The Kyuubi is when the overwhelming amount of yang chakra overloads the yin and is where most of his anger and bitterness reside. Kurama appears when the yin manages to somewhat balance out the yang and is much more reasonable and capable of caring for someone other than himself like his siblings.


	5. How to Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to attempts at guilt tripping
> 
> and 
> 
> The Sand Siblings make their appearence

In wartime, the Konoha academy accepted applicants as young as five, they were churned out in just a couple of years and put onto the battlefield. In peacetime, such as now, applicants traditionally weren’t accepted until they were eight, then they would spend four years in schooling and graduate at twelve to be assigned a genin team. Some people took the genin test early and were put into a team early. This system was great in the fact that it provided time to ease civilians into the ninja life and they could drop out if they wanted before becoming proper shinobi. The system was horrible in the fact that Naruto was six and couldn’t get in for another two years. It’s not that he wasn’t busy per say. The Kyuubi was still being stubborn and kicking him out of his own mindscape. Yu-san had continued with his training in stealth, how to run and fall properly, and how to dodge. She also threw some miscellaneous skills into the lessons as well to make sure he didn't get complacent, they were often boring and frustrating but she hit him lightly over the head whenever he got distracted. There was basic first aid, balancing, infiltration stuff. The one time he complained about having to balance on some ninja wire while she threw kunai at him she switched him to learning how to dance. Totally ignoring his argument that dancing was a _girly thing._ It became her preferred punishment after that, not that Naruto could truly complain. It was great for his coordination and balance in everyday life and it also helped that the focus required pretty much cleared his mind of everything else. It was a nice change from his thoughts bouncing all over.

Occasionally she would hand him off to the other jinchuuriki for lessons as well, her favourite seemed to be Yagura-san. The pretending to be dead Kage was teaching him how to cook now that Naruto had a proper kitchen in which to apply the lessons. By extension he also gained quite a bit of knowledge on plants native to the land of water which was probably the only reason Yu-san let him continue. The notes on the seals that blocked out his mental connection to the other jinchuuriki were very quickly joined by recipes that Yagura had given him. Though half the dishes required ingredients not found in the fire country which made it hard to practice making them. Fū gave him exercises for his flexibility, he couldn’t train his physical body in the mindscape but she made him do them enough times that he could practice them properly in the material world. Roushi made him spend the entire time on history of the elemental nations. B seemed to be the only one taking his pledge to become a seal master seriously and spent the nights that Naruto was handed off to him recreating what little books on sealing he had. Naruto spent _ages_ figuring out the technique to convert Killer B’s constructs into his own so he could bring them back to his mindscape after he woke up. It was a frustrating process but one that was well worth not having to copy every word down by hand. Utakata taught him how to hide from pursuers by covering tracks and scent (Yugito had already made him silent and very much able to hide from sight). Inversely, while learning how to hide scents he learns how to differentiate them as well. After he mentions it to Yu-san she does something that enhances his senses to an almost unbearable level and teaches him how to find people. ( _Monkeys and horses and slugs do not eat meat_ she says _the tanuki may slaughter what it comes across, but the cat and the fox are hunters. Never forget that little nightmare)._ Then she dulls them to a level that makes his vision blurry and ears deaf to any noise not within five meters and tells him to do the same thing as before. It was a very long time before he could.

Still, for all that they teach him, he’s still not training to be a ninja. He can’t use chakra and the few katas they taught him were meditative ones only. He can work on his flexibility and muscles all he wants when he’s not trying to learn how to read and write but it doesn’t change the fact that he can’t use chakra. Without chakra he can't be a ninja and what was the point of training to be one if you weren't actually using the most important part! The others can’t teach him because then the ANBU might get suspicious so he has to go to the ninja academy which he can’t do until he’s eight! And so, it came down to this.

“Pleeease, Jiji” he says to the old man, it’s only one and a half months before the fall session of the academy starts and Naruto is intent on getting in “I promise I won’t cause any trouble, I really wanna know how to be a ninja”

“No, you can go play ninja with your friends at the park”

Naruto kicks the ground with his foot “Nobody wants to play with me, maybe if I go to the academy I can make some friends there” The old man wavers for a moment, Naruto can tell, then steels his expression.

“No, this is final. You may join the academy when you’re eight like all the other kids, here is your allowance for the next four weeks. I shall see you again next month”

Naruto cursed to the sound of Killer B’s laughter and Utakata’s confusion as to _why_ the Kage wouldn’t jump on the chance to get the jinchuuriki started training. He’s going to get into that class no matter what it takes and unfortunately one more day with the old man in a month’s time isn’t going to be enough to convince him evidently. His puppy eyes would not work on the old man anymore, for this he needed a kid’s greatest tool: nagging. Because hey, it had worked with Yugito.

Now, just because the old man was immune to his puppy eyes did not mean that his secretaries were. Which was a fact he totally did not abuse ( _stop laughing Gaara!_ ) in order to get into the old man’s office. Surprisingly, he wasn’t kicked out. Only delegated to his chair in the corner of the room to work on his workbooks. It probably helped that he brought some bribery,  the old man’s tea tasted horrible but he seemed to like it, so hey, who was he to judge? He went to bother a supremely powerful and stubborn entity on a regular basis. The work was just so utterly _boring_ that Yu-san had to stop him from falling asleep to look at one of his beginner sealing books. It wasn’t like he could help finding the stories about animals dull. Sealing was really complicated but at least it wasn’t _boring_.

He was only studying basic sealing scrolls and explosive tags but there was so much you could do! There were obviously the generic storage and explosive seals that were sold in bulk to ninjas but you could modify them to do so much more. Storage seals could contain more or less space, chakra locks (though he _still_ wasn’t quite sure what those were), stasis properties, and even be keyed to only allow a specific item in. Explosive tags were even more interesting since it was literally an explosion. You could change that amount of force the explosion puts out, the amount of smoke, fire, light, etc. He was still debating whether or not he could substitute the smoke in for an airborne mixture of some of those plants Yagura had shown him. Not that he was stupid enough to try and actually make any proper seals, there was a horror novel’s worth of stories as to why he shouldn’t. Naruto preferred to keep all his limbs intact thank you very much.

Needless to say, he did not get very much work done at all in the office. He still continued to bring Jiji a cup of tea every morning and some coffee for the receptionist though. Because bribery, politeness, _and_ nagging could never fail.

It failed.

“You know Naruto-kun” Jiji had said one morning after receiving his tea “The answer is still no”

He had three weeks before applications were due and Naruto had never turned down a challenge before. Even the one set by Utakata which he made everyone _swear_ never to speak of it again. This was a piece of cake compared to that. So he ups his game. Naruto volunteers to help carry documents around the building because _Jiji is practically buried in paperwork_. The administrative team are grossly understaffed and are very appreciative of the help. He starts talking to the secretary, desk shinobi, and even just random loitering ninja about how excited he was about going to the ninja academy that year. People coo about how adorable he is as he moves paperwork around the building. Inevitably comments start making their way to Jiji about how enthusiastic and helpful he is. But Jiji continues to give him a flat stare every time he hands over the morning tea that tells him the answer is still no. There is three days left before the deadline when he springs his trap. B-san had helped him fine-tune the plan while the other jinchuuriki watched in amusement from their mindscapes. Even the Kyuubi seemed to sense his deviousness as it had stopped kicking him out of his own mindscape long enough to detail some of his plans to it. He still inevitably got kicked out anyways but it was progress.

He slipped his academy form into a stack of documents being delivered to the Hokage and waited. This was going to work, _had_ to work and he was going to get into the Academy even if it would sap most of his time. It was only half an hour later when he was called into the office, he practically bounced in, drawing everyone’s eyes to watch his procession to the doors. Jiji was waiting for him, a grave expression on his face and Naruto’s smile dimmed a bit.

“I suppose this is your application Naruto” the lack of the usual suffix made him drop the smile entirely as he nodded. “Then I don’t suppose you could tell me why it was in a stack of official documents that I was supposed to be signing?”

“Well, you would sign it so I could go. . . You did sign it right!” he looked the old man in the eyes somewhat desperately.

“No, Naruto, I did not sign them. You will wait until you are eight years old like everyone else, you should go outside and play with the other children your age. Have fun while you are still young before committing to this path” Tears welled in Naruto’s eyes

“Don’t you get it?” he yells “Nobody likes me, they all leave as soon as I come an’ they pick on me! If I’m a ninja I can be cool an’ none of the other kids can say that I’m a loser every again!” 

Raw hurt comes pouring in from somewhere he didn’t know existed. The words rang far truer than Naruto had every meant them to, they had just burst out from wherever they had previously hidden. They were designed to hurt Jiji because for all his kindness Naruto was still shunned by the villagers. The old man was _Hokage_ and jinchuuriki identities were supposed to stay secret until they became full-fledged ninja at _least_. Because in some way the Sandaime was responsible for his pain and he wanted the old man to feel it. He turned on his heel and ran out the office doors, tears streaming down his cheeks. He ignored all the people who watched him go and didn’t stop until he had run all the way to his apartment. There, nestled in between his numerous plants, he cried.

He sulked the next three days away, not even leaving his apartment to get new groceries. Naruto could live off instant ramen for a day or two, he had done it before and he could do it again. He didn’t even go to the White Room, choosing to raise his flimsy shields and block the others out. Instead of going to the White Room at night he sank into true sleep after his regular talk with the Kyuubi. On the third day he ran out of instant ramen, he unfortunately needed more food. Which meant he needed to go out, where Jiji could be waiting to ambush him or something. But he still needed to get more food so he gathered up his remaining money and went to the market, it was only when he came back that he noticed the letter.

_To: Naruto Uzumaki_

_From: The Konoha Ninja Academy_

He almost dropped all his groceries in his haste to pick it up. He did in fact drop one of the bags which resulted in him having to gather up everything and put it away before he could actually read the letter. Naruto was practically vibrating by the time he picked up the envelope that had been sitting in his mailbox. Carefully, he tore open the top of the envelope and pulled out a sheet of paper.

_Uzumaki Naruto,_

_Your application to the Konoha ninja academy has been accepted. You must take the entrance exam in two weeks’ time if you are to attend the academy, if you fail the exam you will not be allowed in. Scholarships are given to exceptional students who cannot pay for the entrance exam on their own. However your tuition has been paid for so you are no longer eligible for said scholarships. If you do pass the entrance exam you will be put into a special class for early entrants before being moved to your age group in two years’ time if you are still attending. A list of equipment and other information with be provided if you pass the entrance exam._

_Sincerely, Mio Sakai head of Konoha Shinobi Academy_

 

Two weeks later found him sitting in a hallway with a bunch of other kids waiting to take the entrance exam. He had spent the last hour there and his courage had long since abandoned him. Maybe this was some kind of mental torture for new applicants. Anything could be possible, the other jinchuuriki weren’t telling. To be fair, only Fū, Utakata, and Yagura had gone to their village’s academy and Kiri wasn’t exactly a good example of what the academy in Konoha would look like according to them. But the others still had a pretty good idea _and_ they were refusing to help him on the exam. Naruto did realize that nobody else had eight other people to help with tests but they also had other people to help them study. Naruto didn’t even know what he was supposed to study for the entrance exam.

_‘I believe that is the point’_ said _brine on sunken ship_

Naruto, because he was an incredibly mature six year old, stuck a mental tongue out at Yagura. If he wasn’t going to help he could keep his comment to himself.

“Uzumaki, Naruto” called out the person next to the entrance to the exam room

He practically jumped out of his seat and flew towards the doors. He passed by the person who had called his name and headed into the room. It was a large auditorium with two desks set in the centre of the room and an array of high up windows lining the walls. The only other people in there were three adults but there was another set of doors that most likely led to where the other children had exited.

“Okay, Naruto. We’re going to start off with a written exam to test your current knowledge, then there is going to be a physical examination before we conclude with a chakra reading” Naruto still had no idea what they meant by a chakra reading but nodded anyways, this might be another portion of the test or something. The desk that Naruto sat down at held only a turned down test and a set of pencils.

“Now, you are going to have twenty minutes to fill out as much of this test as you can, you may flip over your paper. . . Now”

He grabbed up the pencil as soon as the large hourglass was flipped and turned over the paper.

_What were the names of the four Hokage?_

That one was kind of easy, Jiji had told him stories about the Shodaime and Nidaime but had never mentioned the Yondaime’s name but he didn't have the time to ponder it. He scribbled down the names he knew before moving on to the next question.

_What is the name of the hidden village in the land of lightning?_

This one was easy as well, were all the questions going to be like this? If so, Naruto was going to pass with flying colours.

No, they were not. The questions got _much_ harder the further he got into the test. There were questions about chakra and weapons and _math._ At least Roushi’s endless history lessons were finally coming in handy, if only Naruto could remember even half of them _._ The other jinchuuriki were completely silent and Naruto didn’t have the time to bug them for the answers so he just kept flipping through the test and putting down the answers he knew. If he came across one he didn’t know he would try to figure it out for a bit but if that didn’t work he would just go on to the next one. It seemed like it had only been a few minutes when the sand in the hourglass ran out. He was half way through a word problem but Naruto didn’t want to get kicked out for cheating before he was properly entered so he set down his pencil instead of finishing it. One of the three people came to collect his test while another guided him out the other set of doors. His eyes burned slightly as sunlight found its way to them after that long spent inside the building but he just squinted at the grass filled field that he had entered. Another person was waiting there and when Naruto looked back his guide had disappeared. Cautiously, he walked towards the other adult.

“Alright, now for your physical assessment” the woman began “You will have to run this obstacle course as fast as you can” She gestured to the lineup of obstacles that had been set up for the test. “Go”

Naruto squawked at the abrupt start but took off running towards the low wall that appeared to be his first obstacle. He grabbed the top and pulled himself over the wall only for the unexpected drop on the other side to jar his legs. He had landed on a square stone that was surrounded by water which was weird because he hadn’t seen any water when he had come out. There was another platform not too far away and Naruto leaped from one to another until he reached the water’s edge. Next he had to crawl under a bunch of ninja wire followed by walking across a piece of rope with only some more wire over his head to help balance him out. Then there was a rock wall in front of him. And there was a ledge at the top and his arms were burning even with all the exercises Yu-san had him do. The finish was just down below and there was a ladder to one side but that would take up too much time. Swallowing abruptly, Naruto jumped off the raised platform, tucking into a roll just before he hit the ground like Fū had taught him. He sat there panting as the woman came up to him after looking at a stopwatch.

“Not bad” she scribbled something down on a clipboard “Okay, last test. I need you to hold this for me”

She chucked a white rock lightly at him. His tired limbs fumbled with it for a moment before it settled in his palms. The lady leaned in to get a closer look at it and Naruto was about to ask her why she was looking at a rock when it lit up a light blue. The woman hummed before writing something else down on her clipboard.

“Hey! What was that?” he asked her

“Kid, do I look like a sensor to you” he shook his head even though he didn’t know what a sensor was “exactly, we needed to check if you have the base amount of chakra needed to attend. Now shoo, you’ll get a package detailing what you need to know in the mail if you pass”

Naruto was tempted to ask her just what chakra sensing was but thought better of it and headed towards the gate. He had a _basic_ understanding of what chakra was, it was basically life force that was split into the five elements to regulate nature and two elements to regulate the body. People with high enough chakra levels could manipulate it to make you stick to walls or harness one of the natural elements to create an effect that was normally an attack. The two bodily chakras could also be used to do stuff but Naruto wasn’t exactly sure what that was yet. They’d probably go over it in the academy along with chakra locks and sensing. He paused as he was leaving, and looked up at the Hokage’s office but no one was at the window. He shrugged and turned away.

‘ _You guys are of absolutely no help. You know that right?’_

_‘Honestly, little nightmare, we’ve practically been tutoring you on this stuff for years. How many civilians would actually know stuff about other shinobi villages? But they still get in. Besides, they’re also trying to figure out how much you actually know.’_

_‘Yeah, well what about the physical. Huh?’_

Naruto got the impression that Yugito was flatly staring at him. Then his brain finally processed what he had said.

_‘Oh’_

_‘Yeah, now go to sleep little nightmare, and I mean proper sleep’_

Naruto started, he hadn’t even realized he had been walking until that moment and he was staring up at his own apartment building. He yawned. Sleep sounded like a good idea right at that moment. He couldn’t remember the last time that he had sunk into oblivion instead of going to the White Room at night aside from those three days where he was sulking.

He still ended up visiting Kurama that night.

The packet arrived two days later containing a list of materials he would need to buy and a sheet with the date of the first class and room number. Shopping completely emptied Gama-chan and it was _still_ only the basic stuff for the year. Naruto didn’t dare to guess how much the upper years supplies would cost, or how much they’d weight. He was loaded with textbooks, notebooks, workbooks, basically a lot of heavy books. He had tried to block the thought of how much actual ninja gear would cost from his head but had failed miserably. He’d have to start saving up _now_ if he didn’t want to be eating only at Ichiraku’s for months.

Don’t get him wrong, Ichiraku’s was supremely amazing and wonderful, it was the food of Kami after all. Naruto ate there at least twice a week but eating it for every meal would definitely ruin his height. Fū was still teasing him about those extra inches she had on him. It wasn’t _fair_ , she was _way_ older than him. Not that he actually knew her age but she was definitely older than him. In fact, all the other jinchuurikis were older than him. Even Gaara! Thought that was only by a few months, but still! It wasn't his fault that he was still kinda short compared to the others.

The week and a half before class started disappeared in the blink of an eye and suddenly he was a part of the academy like any other student. Naruto’s class had an assortment of kids from different age groups, the youngest was five and the oldest was eight. He didn’t end up paying much attention to the other people in his class and focused more on the work they were supposed to be doing. Even if it was confusing. A normal day was divided into two parts by the lunch break. The first part was all academic stuff with a focus on reading, writing, and math. Naruto hated the first half of the day. The second half was much more his style, it dealt with the physical conditioning needed to become a ninja.

Life was looking good, he had reconciled with Jiji and he could finally start learning ninja stuff from the other jinchuuriki now that he was in the academy. Then he mustered up the courage to ask Kurama about his parents, it ended horribly. He ran, ran away from the thing that had killed his parents and towards the other jinchuuriki. Away from any possible friends he might have made in the academy before their parents could warn about him. Towards the other jinchuuriki. Naruto sunk back into himself, like he did whenever there was a crowd watching him, pretending it was okay. That it was fine. It was nowhere near fine, Naruto was nowhere near fine and the world seemed to want to crush whatever semblance of fine he had left. The next catastrophe happened and Naruto ran right back to the Kyuubi because nothing could be worse than this.  

 

* * *

 

Temari was the first born child of the Kazekage. She saw her mother’s smiling face every morning and her uncle taught her how to climb the sandstone walls of Suna so she could see the beauty of the desert whenever she wanted. She got her first swimming lesson at five and was handed off to Baki immediately afterwards. He taught her how to become a part of the desert, a part of the endless shifting sand and wind. How to not sink below the dunes and stand untouched in the middle of a sandstorm. Temari grew up learning the harsh lessons of the desert and coming home to a warm meal and the wind tearing through the deserted streets. It was only much later that she was able to withstand the winds to view the brilliant desert stars that could be seen at night from the rooftops. She found her summoning contract in the desert as was tradition, she followed the ways of people who wandered the landscape long before Suna was even a thought. Getting lost in the desert to find her contract, she came across the jackals and rattlesnakes who pointed her in a different direction. She found Kamatari and the weasel contract after three days and she spent an extra five without anyone realizing she could have been back days ago. He taught her how to make her own wind as sharp as his scythe and as large as a sandstorm. When her mother passed away it would be Temari, the eldest child, who would be the ruler of the household. It was not long after that when she started attending her father's councils, she would sit silent and shadow-like as matters of the village were discussed. She would bite her tongue until it bled in an effort to keep quite at what she heard. Her father did not care for the people of Suna, the civilians or the shinobi, all he cared for was the village's pride and his own position. Temari was a child of the desert, a free spirit wrapped in harshness and pain that could not be controlled. But the wind could be silent, could wait to shriek long enough for you not to realize the wyrwind was already upon you and then it was too late. So she was quiet and she waited and watched as her father send out shinobi after shinobi to die for the sake of the village, one day his time would come and the wyrwind would swallow him and Suna up until all that was left was ashes. She would guide it along its path for because her father had a bad habit of creating monsters of his children, he just hadn't realized how many he had made. 

Kankuro came next, he was much quieter than his sister from what his father could see. He listened instead of talking and watched instead of doing. He never had time to learn the lessons the desert had to teach him. The puppeteer corps plucked him from their family like one might pluck a cactus needle from flesh. Quickly, and without warning. Kankuro grew up in the deafening silence and darkness of the caves of Suna where the apprentice puppeteers learned and lived their trade. The fumes from the poison rivers that stuck in his throat and scarred his lungs. There were some nights his body convulsed against the poison and he coughed until it was no longer air but blood. But Kankuro was a fast learning, smart and clever, so much more so than he had ever let on because Temari had known it was dangerous to be too good and she had passed that down to him. He snuck out at night down to the purple and green rivers until he had made an antidote to every single one. He learned puppets from the remains of Akasuna no Sasori’s works during the designated sleeping hours and no one saw because no one looked. He knew the anatomy of humans, wings and talons of birds, the many legs of spiders, movement of snakes, muscles of dogs, the camouflage of the giant sand worms, and even the invertebrate of the slugs. The sand worms were particularly hard to find since he was not allowed on the jounin training grounds so he had to search the demon desert whenever he could sneak away. There was no such thing as perfect, always one more senbon or kunai. One more trick to be played. He saw the sun once more at eight and it burned his eyes as it would have his skin if he hadn't been cloaked in the black bunraku of the puppeteer corps. His war paint was applied for the first time at the age of nine, his face itched with the blood but he didn’t wash his face until it had all peeled off. He replaced it with purple of his favoured poison and the last one he had tinkered with. The triangular patterns of the theatre masks. It was dismissed as a childish move and no one thought to question why his choice had been that of the Araksi.

Gaara was the last of the sand siblings. His hair was the colour of blood and Suna sunsets and his eyes the rare desert cactus. His fate was sealed the moment that he was discovered to be compatible with the Ichibi. The one tails was sealed in him before he was even born, and his mother was killed because of it. He hadn't been a minute old before he took his first life and wasn't that an ominous omen. For all of his father’s training for him to use and control his sand he was never present in his life aside from that. His uncle, Yashamaru, was the one to take care of the three of them. Two, once Kankuro was taken away. Temari was the only other person truly present in his life, telling him stories and whispering plans for the future that would have her executed if they ever left the room. But for all that his sister loved him she still spent days out in the desert while Gaara was confined to Suna’s walls. It was a cage built and held together by sand. Gaara could almost find it ironic, the fact that all sand was under his control and he was still trapped by walls of it. His father was a foolish man, even now Gaara could see it. Suna was crumbling, it was whispered among his guards that stood atop sand and still thought they could hide from him. There were people who showed too much promise, who may one day grow powerful enough to pose a threat to the Kazekage. It was those people who were sent to die. Those who were spectacular had to fade into mediocrity before it was too late. His father was killing off the strong to secure his position that wasn’t in any danger to begin with and was strangling Suna in doing so. Gaara was a danger at this moment, would be an even greater one if he left. A rouge jinchuuriki was a dead jinchuuriki in Suna and he didn't want to test if his sister would risk everything to help him. She was loyal to her cause and to the desert. For all that Yashamaru was loyal to his mother’s memory and therefore to him, he was more so to Suna and the Kazekage. The other jinchuuriki weren’t loyal to him either.

They were loyal to their own villages first and each other second. The secrecy of the link was to be held no matter the cost but there was no other requirements of them to him. Still, things were easier in the White Room. The Ichibi’s constant promises of blood and death were muted there, an itch in the back of his head instead of grating pain in his skull. Said grating pain was the cause of his insomnia. Threats to the health of family and innocents did that to a person. Which was why it was a good thing that being in the White Room was not true sleep. A person’s conscious mind was still quite active in the White Room and therefore the Ichibi could not take it over. There were three ways to actually drop into the White Room and not just have the constant flow of thoughts and feelings that were received if one did not have the proper mental shields. The first way was to sleep, that was immediately out. Gaara was never allowed to sleep. The second way was for another jinchuuriki to reach past your shields and forcibly pull you into the mindscape. This had worked for a while, the problem was that it was quite difficult to reach through mental shields and Gaara’s were up all the time to help block out the Ichibi. The final way was to meditate. This was the only way that Gaara could reliably get into the White Room. He still wasn’t allowed to meditate for more than three hours at a time for fear he might accidently drift off into sleep. So Suna's jinchuuriki was effectively isolated.

The children of the village ran when he appeared and even the crowded tunnels of the Underbridge cleared to the best of their ability even if there was a wyrwind raging. Gaara had never felt physical pain but he wondered if it was similar to the ache in his chest. No matter how much training his father put him through his sand still reacted to every little hurt he may have. That apparently included the hurting in his chest. The other children had run away and his sand surged forth to exact revenge. He tried to pull it back, to restrain it from hurting the girl it had caught but it didn’t listen. Yashamaru had to step in and Gaara hung his head. He had failed again, there were only so many failures that he could have before the Kazekage would have to step in. There was only so much his uncle could do to protect him.

All Gaara wanted to do was retreat back to his room. His room was a safe haven where he could get his sand and himself to calm back down. There was a large window that he could use to see the village but his main use for it was for the light it provided. He knew that Naruto had a little garden back in his village and Gaara had taken inspiration to make one of his own. There were nowhere close to as many different types of plants in Suna as in Konoha. It was the price of having practically no aboveground water. So instead of having a wide assortment of plants like his fellow jinchuuriki he focused on one type: Cactus. The entire area lit by the window was filled with cactus. The darker parts of his room were also filled with cactus, just ones that didn’t prefer the brightness of the sun. The spikes could never hurt him and being the child of the Kazekage meant he would never lack water to give them. It wasn’t like Suna had a shortage of cactus. He didn’t know precisely where they came from but they appeared whenever he was feeling sad. Gaara had a sneaking suspicion that it was his sand.

Yashamaru did not let him go to his room. It was almost ironic how most children would be sent to their rooms and Gaara was being kept from his. He had to listen to Yashamaru’s lecture before he could finally flee. His room was out of the question now, it would be the first place that Yashamaru would look for him and Gaara did not want to be found right now. He settled for the roof of a building near the marketplace, it was too late for vendors to still be selling their wares but it was the most open part of Suna. It was the best place to feel the wind except the top of the Kazekage’s tower. It was a good place to mediate. Maybe his sister would join him on the building to watch the stars tonight.

Naruto would not be in the White Room for another couple hours but Gaara’s shadows had disappeared as soon as he had gotten home. There was nobody to pull him out so he could use this time as a respite from the Ichibi’s insane ramblings. He had almost reached the stasis point where he could hide in his mind, there was no warning or sense of anything amiss. When suddenly his sand shot up behind him, curling into a half shield to block the projectiles that had been launched at him from a different building. It was almost impossible to sneak up on him normally with his sand sense but like all things meditation dulled that sense. But the surprise was like a shot of adrenalin to his system and he was alert in a second as opposed to the minute or so it would normally take for him to properly exit the state.

There! The shinobi was now directly behind him and Gaara turned to face them. Another wave of kunai was sent at him and another and another. It was all futile, his sand blocked each and every one without fail. His attacker was SCAR, Suna ANBU. The Kazekage, his own father, had sent someone to assassinate him. It should not have been as shocking as it was but it _hurt_ far more than any children running away from him ever could.

Anger washed over him. _His own father had sent someone to assassinate him_. Hadn’t even bothered to look his own son in the face and do it himself. Wasn’t even watching the betrayal unfold from afar. He was still in his office, mindlessly signing papers like the one that was to kill his own child. His wife’s child.

~ _Kill. Kill them all, make them pay for their wrongs against you_ ~

His fingers unraveled from where they had been clenched together and he raised his palm upright. There was no need for words. Words would just slow him down. He hopped off the ledge he had been sitting on and his sand shot out. Quicker than a sand worm it wrapped around the shinobi. It cocooned the ninja spinning them up into the air and contracted, crushing the black ops agent without a second thought.

Gaara froze. The sand faltered and fell back to earth, nothing more than simple particles once more. The shinobi fell with them and hit the ground with a crunch. Gaara wanted to vomit. _No, no, no, no, no, I didn’t mean to. I never wanted to hurt anybody, I just wanted them to_ stop _._

~ _Oh but you did_ ~ the tanuki’s voice wrapped around him like a roll of bandages ~ _I just simply gave you a push in the right direction, like a good mother would_ ~

The rest was cut off as the shinobi gave a wheezing laugh.

“I always knew you were a monster” Gaara froze. He knew that voice “Because of that, your kaa-san never loved you, and in turn, you killed her. Isn’t that what monsters do?” The shinobi weakly tugged of their face cloth, revealing the hard eyes of Yashamaru. Gaara fell to his knees as his veins turned to ice “She named you because you were a self-loving carnage. You’re nothing but the filth that killed her-the filth that killed my sister” He spat.

The sand rose up once more to bombard his uncle’s form. Not of his choice this time, but like it always did when something made his chest ache. Like all those other times he couldn’t restrain it, but Gaara wasn’t sure he wanted to. His uncle’s mouth was once more uncovered from the sand.

“Please, die”

The night lit up with all the light and noise that a vest full of explosive tags could make.

 

Gaara’s mindscape was a swirling sandstorm. His normal life-sized model of Sunagakure was being decimated. Pulled into the sandstorm to make it even more ferocious than before. Gaara was being overwhelmed, a part of him wanted to reach his door to the White Room. To reach the peace of Naruto and the other jinchuuriki but a larger part wanted to cover his ears and scream. The sandstorm tore at his mental form but he paid it no mind even as more buildings crumbled. Some buildings were worn down to the last grain but others disappeared before their protective outer casing was worn away. Not only his father but his uncle as well? Was it all lies, all a game to earn his trust only to tear it away once more. To break him even more than he already was. Because if that was the goal they succeeded. Where before he had been cracked, now he was shattered. Torn apart at the seams and cut into tiny little pieces before being thrown to the desert wind. Was that all he was, carnage that destroyed everything he touched. If no one else loved him, he would just have to love himself. Kill off the ache in his chest so he could no longer feel it, it was no longer necessary. Alone was good, alone was safe.

~ _Yes_ ~

The desert ground gave a great heaving sigh and buckled. A mass of yellow and purple shook off the remains of Sunagakure and yowled in triumph. Gaara felt his eyes snap closed and knew no more.

Shukaku would eventually be forced back down into the seal that Gaara’s desert represented. The model of Sunagakure would reform from the disrupted sands and knowledge piece by piece. But the Ichibi would always lurk closer to the surface and with much more influence. Gaara became the true terror of Suna. The monster who you didn’t stay out late in fear of encountering. But unlike the monster lurking under the bed or the boogeyman in the closet Gaara was there in the day as well. The white door had disappeared, not that Gaara noticed. He also didn’t notice that buildings were missing. They were innocuous things, a house here, and a store there. Naruto became a fishcake once more and Gaara became truly alone for the first time in his life. Not that he remembered that anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Araksi- A fictional secret organization that arranged assassinations and 'accidents' among other things to keep the balance of power in check. Using this as a reference to Kankuro's hidden talents and non-allegiance to his father like his sister. 
> 
> And I'm back after my mini-hiatus that was really only three weeks long. Sorry about that, I'm using the age old excuse of fanfiction writers; school. Don't you just love crunch time where you get literally everything dumped on you and it saps your inspiration, me too! I still hope you guys enjoy this chapter and shout out to anyone and everyone who has commented so far because it's what motivated me to post this chapter. Thanks.
> 
> The first half of the chapter jumps back in time from the second half of the last one if you couldn't tell, the very beginning is mostly used to set some stuff up but it's not really foreshadowing. Also, if some of you are questioning why Naruto acted really childishly in this chapter its because he is a child. Sure he's probably a bit more mature than most other kids because of the other jinchuuriki but he doesn't have much experience regulating emotions like sadness and anger. 
> 
> And wow, Temari came out of nowhere as a little badass planning her father's downfall for her siblings, in fact, all the sand siblings are badasses. I did not think that any of the parts would turn out this way but I do nothing if not take an unexpected idea and run with it. Also that marks the last we see of Gaara until the Chunin exams most likely. Yes, I am a horrible person for doing that to him but don't worry I have everything planned out, you might be able to guess if you look back on previous chapters as to where his memories have gone but that is an unlikely possibility. See ya!


	6. Fire and Fading Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the academy finally starts
> 
> and
> 
> Sasuke makes his appearence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha. I'm so tired. I'm what, one hour from my deadline of chapter by the end of the month?

The academy was not at all what he had expected. It was actually rather boring.

Naruto had come to this realization a month and a half into the semester. In his defense there was the whole deal with Gaara freaking out before sealing himself off entirely and making up with Kurama. Unfortunately, a month and a half was more than enough time for everyone in his class to make their first impressions. And second, and third impressions. He’d been distracted and had automatically played the idiot while he had attempted to sort through the jumbled mess that was his life and now that’s what everyone thought he was. It wasn’t like he was the smartest kid in the class to begin with, the concepts were explained weird and they were hard to understand.

It probably was because _they were never explained_. Well, they were kinda explained but never give the context so that for the rest of the lesson Naruto would be distracted trying to put it back into context. For example, in history they would talk about how Iwa hated Konoha but they didn’t explain that it was because the fourth Hokage had slaughtered hundreds of shinobi over the course of the war. If nothing else it proved that revenge was a powerful motivator and fear followed close behind. Naruto hated those two things. They were stupid in his opinion.

Then tests would arrive and he would have one line to answer a question but the answers were complicated and he was never able to fit the answer in. Which led to tests filled with erasure marks and doodles that had once tied into the now-gone answers with at least half of the paper blank because he was too busy trying to pull his hair out. Naruto was officially the dead last of the class.

It wasn’t all awful. The other jinchuuriki were good at explaining the things he didn’t really understand and Kurama was a centuries old construct that held a veritable wealth of knowledge now that they had made up. Even if he didn’t know any cool jutsus he was still learning stuff.

Then the first time he got over a sixty on a test it was marked as a zero for cheating. Naruto didn’t know how to explain to his sensei that he wasn’t cheating, that it was just that he had been distracted for all the previous tests. Whenever he tried he found himself fumbling for words in sheer disbelief over what his sensei was saying.

Naruto was nothing if not determined though and he tried again and again to prove that he wasn’t cheating until one day after class Shiokawa-sensei told him to stay after school. She explained to him that if he kept cheating on his tests then he would be expelled from the academy. Naruto was too stunned to even defend himself, he didn’t remember walking home that night but he woke up in his bed so he assumed that he had.

After that he gave up. It wasn’t something he had ever pictured himself doing, but there was no way around it. If he continued on like this he would be kicked out of the academy and never allowed back in even when he was eight. His dream of becoming a ninja was more important than his pride over false accusations. So he slipped right back into the role of the idiot and he played it well.

Nobody noticed, nobody cared.

As his time in the academy progressed Naruto found himself making comparisons. The sensei who taught history could never compare to Roushi. Who told the tales like he had been there himself and actually stopped to elaborate on anything when Naruto was confused. When Yu-san had noticed his atrocious handwriting she had forced him to practice instead of ignoring whatever she had been given. Where math was the same frustratingly complicated stuff as sealing there was no Killer B to help him through a particularly tough problem. Where the shinobi rules Yugito had spoken of back when she was teaching him to pick locks had made sense none of the ones in school did. Why wasn’t he allowed to cry? Why did he always have to place the mission above the life of a maybe-future friend-teammate? Both combat tactics and geography flew over his head without the accompanying simulations. Why did the teacher stress planning in advance when _all_ the jinchuuriki agreed that no plan survived first contact unless it was a trap? Chakra and jutsu knowledge and theory was repetitive and very basic, there was no mention of elemental chakra or even kekkei genkai. Two of Konoha’s four noble clans had a kekkei genkai!

The worst part was that they weren’t even taught how to mold chakra!

Utakata had been the one to teach Naruto about the _flow_ of chakra. How it could be like a calm sea or a raging flood depending on the person. Chakra spun one way in your pathways and it was something the person had to learn about before attempting anything big or else they would most likely rupture their chakra coils. The two had gone through multiple theoretical thought exercises on how to smooth the flow of chakra in a ninja’s coils but it was useless because _he still couldn’t mold chakra_.

Physical training was something he was much better at. It was running, climbing, and fighting. While the academy only taught one type of katas they were still meant to do damage which was a nice change. He only kept up his meditative ones because they were actually more stressful on the body. He dedicated hours of his free time to practice the academy katas that were shown but no matter how hard he practiced them he still wasn’t able to beat the top of the class.

The other jinchuuriki said it was because the other boy was eight and his muscles had matured more but that didn’t stop Naruto from starting to feel a bit desperate. He had seven _professional_ shinobi to help him become a ninja and he couldn’t even beat a stupid civilian born.

Kunai and shuriken were worse. Technically. He averaged a seven out of ten hit on the target with five bullseyes at maximum but that didn’t bother him too much. Yugito had him practicing with _real_ kunai and shuriken, not the weird rubbery ones at the academy. It was the weight difference between the two that threw him off but it would only serve him better when he didn’t have to adjust to real weapons. That didn’t mean he didn’t have to try in those lessons though because currently it was only his physical grades that kept him from flunking out.

Then the student senseis arrived. Their actual senseis had repeatedly explained that for a month there would be a chunin who was in the teaching program who was assigned to a class in order to gain some actual experience in a classroom. Naruto had totally forgotten about it, tuning it out with the rest of the useless information the senseis spouted out daily, until the student sensei walked through the door.

He couldn’t be older than nineteen, which was still pretty old but not as old as Jiji, and introduced himself with a large smile on his face. Naruto considered making bets on how long his upbeat attitude would last but decided against it. According to Yagura, all shinobi had their quirks and this class seemed determined to show them early. Naruto wasn’t even sure that he could be considered the most troubled one of the bunch which was saying something. Fortunately for the student sensei their actual sensei then showed up before anyone had gotten the idea to try and poke at the chunin. The schedule written onto the board dictated that the first week would be spent reviewing what they had already learned. The next three weeks would be used to preview what the third and fourth years of their full shinobi education would look like. That included the book stuff of course but it also meant survival exercises and actually learning to use chakra.

To Naruto’s utmost surprise, and secret relief on not placing a bet, the student sensei was still holding strong two weeks later. Despite the fact that there was always something waiting for him like tacks on his chair or paint on his folders he appeared with a smile each morning. Naruto was beginning to respect him because even their regular senseis could only put up with so much of it before they snapped. When they did it was usually blamed on him so Naruto was extremely glad he hadn’t gotten fed up yet.

The survival exercises were surprisingly fun. They would go out with an older class and be assigned groups that would have to work together for an allotted amount of time in the forests outside Konoha. His knowledge from Yagura’s lessons had _finally_ come in handy and it was pleasantly surprising to find that he knew some things about edible roots and plants that the upper years didn’t. Even if most of his knowledge on that front was useless as long as they were in Hi no Kuni. The other kids didn’t necessarily _like_ spending time with him, especially when they were from clans, but they didn’t hold the same prejudice as the adults. The real problems started when they began working with chakra.

It was a simple exercise, one they had talked about in theory many, many times before. One had to draw their chakra to the surface of their forehead and use it to stick a leaf there so it wouldn’t fall off. It was supposedly the simplest exercise there was and it made no sense as to why Naruto couldn’t do it. He knew he had chakra. He was a jinchuuriki for Kami’s sake, _they had chakra to spare_. So why couldn’t he find it? Why couldn’t he find the well of energy that was supposedly his chakra pools?

It had been nearly five days since the exercise had been started and everyone else had already gotten it. Even those who were younger than him. He had even been re-tested to see if he had the amount of chakra required to be in the academy. Which, again, was stupid because _he was a jinchuuriki!_ The other jinchuuriki didn’t have a clue what was going on and Kurama was being silent. Suspiciously so, it was a far cry from the running commentary the fox usually seemed inclined to give about his day.

He was almost starting to miss all of that _you absolute moron_ and _how many times do I have to tell you that cutting an onion_ will _make you cry whether you want too or not._

“Look, Naruto I don’t know what to tell you. We’ve gone over this countless times already and you’re holding the rest of the class back”

“I know, and ’m trying _really_ hard but I just can’t do it” Shiokawa-sensei let out another sigh

“You’ve said that multiple times already Naruto but the class needs to move on to the next exercise” She looked like she was about to continue her mini-lecture but the student sensei cut her off

“Um, excuse me, Shiokawa-san but I do believe that I may be of assistance here” He paused, waiting for her to motion for him to continue before moving on “I have had little chance to practice my own instructing skills so perhaps I could help out Naruto while you move on with the rest of the class”

She almost looked like she was about to protest but apparently thought better of it and threw up her arms instead “You know what? Knock yourself out. You can rejoin the class whenever you want but we’re not going to review the stuff we learn in that time so you’re on your own kid”

The last part was directed at him but Naruto had already tuned her out, choosing to look suspiciously at the student sensei instead. The person in question turned to Naruto with that same small smile they always had on their face as Shiokawa-sensei trudged back to her desk to get out the next exercise. It wasn’t a malicious smile but that did not stop the uneasiness welling in his gut. People didn’t help Naruto this easily, Shiokawa-sensei was one of his favourite teachers but she treated him like an annoyance which was still better than his other sensei’s who just plain ignored him. There had to be some other motive to this, he just had to treat this like one of Yu-san’s exercises and figure it out.

“So, shall we get started Naruto”

Naruto did not have high hopes for this little tutoring session and true to form, the first day yielded no new developments. The substitute sensei still had him run through a couple of katas for him to look over in the afternoon but most of the day was spent on chakra expression. The look of utter bewilderment on his face as his dismissed Naruto did not raise his hopes up. They worked through another day like this before a possible solution was thought up.

 “You said that your problem is that you can’t find your chakra, right?” Naruto nodded in confirmation even as his face scrunched up “Well, it occurred to me that maybe you can’t find it because you don’t know what to look for. You’ve probably never felt any chakra before so maybe doing so will help you figure out what you are looking for”

“How would that work? As far as I know you can’t exactly _feel_ someone else’s chakra unless you’ve unlocked your own.”

“You are correct about that, one way would be for you to ingest a soldier pill. But,” He began as Naruto’s expression turned hopeful “You’re not allowed to take them until you’ve become a genin at _least_ if not a chunin. The other way is what’s called a chakra injection.”

Naruto reeled backwards, injections were never good things. This was exactly what he had been worried about, this was the motive behind his false kindness. Some sort of poison or chakra corruption that would work as an assassination attempt.

“No! No way in hell am I letting you inject me with something!”

The student sensei looked surprised at his reaction “Well, it’s not an actual injection. It’s just a term used for a transfer of chakra to another person, it’s usually used for when someone is suffering from chakra exhaustion” The rushed explanation did not stop Naruto from eyeing him with suspicion but he allowed the older boy to continue. “I’m not a professional medical-nin but I took a couple internships at the hospital when I was younger. I’m not as good as the people who do this professionally but I do know how to slide some of my own chakra into one of the tenketsu in your hand.”

“How do I know you’re not going do something else to me? You could be lying” Naruto accused

The student sensei merely shrugged “I don’t know what to tell you, I have no motivation to hurt you but if you don’t want to do this I won’t force you. You’ll probably discover your chakra eventually but it probably won’t be any time this month.”

That was what stopped Naruto from flat out denying the option. If the student sensei was right then by the time he unlocked his chakra all preparation he could’ve gotten out of this month would be wasted.

“If I see anything suspicious I’m going to kick you” He said totally serious and the student sensei nodded

“That’s acceptable”

Naruto begrudgingly offered his hand out and the student sensei took it in his own. The empty hand lit up a soft emerald and was pressed to his palm. For a moment nothing happened and he was about to accuse him of lying but out of nowhere his veins rose to a boiling temperature. It was like someone had given extra oxygen to a low-burning fire and it had turned into an inferno. His chakra pathways sang as they came into contact with a foreign chakra, it wasn’t that they had awoken. No, it was more like you were wearing glasses that you didn’t know were dirty up until you cleaned them. He could _feel_ as his chakra curled around the other one that was much lighter than his own. He couldn’t find the well to tap into because he already had a steady stream going! A smile rose as Naruto pulled himself out of the sensation, now a small buzz in the back of his head.

“Thanks, Iruka-sensei!”

“You’re welcome, Naruto”

Iruka moved to pull his hand away and the foreign chakra pulled back with him and Naruto’s chakra _changed._ His newly discovered pathways relaxed slightly as his chakra became lighter, thinner. It was happening all throughout his body, there wasn’t a specific place where it had started but it had to have come from somewhere. Something began echoing through his network as his chakra shifted to match the retreating one. It was flashes of heat and something burning. It was the same as Iruka’s _heart of fire_.

His mind screeched to a halt, the seconds seemed to extent as Naruto attempted to comprehend that _he had just read someone’s presence._ Naruto hadn’t even known that non-jinchuurikis could _have_ presences. He rocked back on his heels reaching desperately for the strongest presence the bond could pick up without falling back into his mindscape. _Stinging blue fire._

His own chakra stopped morphing. It flickering desperately between two presences as it attempted to grasp one only for it to get pulled towards the other. And then Iruka’s slipped away from Naruto’s grasp. The whole thing couldn’t have taken more than a few seconds and Naruto desperately threw away the feel of Yugito’s presence as his chakra squirmed, and then it settled into the weird mix it had become.

Iruka-sensei wasn’t even looking at him, not having detected something was wrong as he pulled his hand away, and was instead searching through his bag. Triumphantly, he pulled out a leaf and handed it to Naruto.

“Try the exercise now”

Naruto felt the energy moved through his system like a fire licking paper but it was weird, off. He tried to pull away an ember and push it towards the leaf on his forehead but it was unwieldy, it burned away his grasp and rejoined the stream.

~ _bite the inside of your mouth_ ~

‘ _What?’_

~ _bite the inside of your mouth,_ brat~

Deciding that pushing the subject further wouldn’t get him anywhere Naruto followed Kurama’s instructions and bit down on the inside of his mouth. He tasted copper for only a moment before a foreign chakra rushed up from his stomach to close the wound. It was a small amount but his own chakra responded anyways. Though it wasn’t changing to match the foreign energy like he had expected. Instead, it was thickening, moving away from fire and becoming a storm like the one he felt just before his chakra had changed. It beat against his coils like rain pounding on a roof and Naruto couldn’t care less because this was _right_ where the other stuff had been so, so _wrong_.

Instead of peeling off a tongue of flame, this time he cupped a couple raindrops and sprinkled them towards the area where he held the leaf. His own tongue was stuck out with concentration as he carefully moved his hand away from where it had held pressure on the leaf. It stayed.

Naruto’s shout of triumph could be heard all the way to Shiokawa-sensei’s class. Instantly speculation as to what had caused the noise began which naturally disrupted the class even more so than the usual amount of talking. Needless to say, Shiokawa-sensei was pissed. She appeared on the scene, eyes blazing, only to find Naruto practically _hanging_ off the kid observing her class. The Uzumaki wasn’t a bad kid, it’s just that Saeko didn’t have the time to deal with his antics with the other kids in the class already taking up so much time. She also didn’t have a heart of stone so even she could admit that the sight was rather cute. So was his hyperactive eagerness to show her he could stick a leaf to his head with chakra.

That student-sensei was going places. She’d been struggling with that boy for an entire week and he had gotten it done in a three days. Maybe she’d have to recommend him to take the exam early, he had talent.

None of that stopped her lecture on the need to be _quiet_ in the school building.

‘ _Oi, Kurama_ ’ Naruto pushed towards the fox as he was walking back to the classroom with Iruka-sensei

~ _Brat_ ~

‘ _That was your chakra healing me right?’_

~ _turn left_ ~ Naruto obliged, barely avoiding running into a wall ~ _I’m surprised you managed to feel that, I simply used my chakra to reset your own. It is an interesting ability, being able to mimic any chakra you come into contact with. One I was sure you would lose once you properly awakened your chakra, you proved me wrong again I suppose_ ~

‘ _Lose? Also, what did you use to do in order to send me out of my own head if not chakra? Cause that felt_ way _different_ ’

~ _doorframe. I was using purely yin chakra to do that and it needs a mixture to reset your chakra system. Before the kid made you aware of your chakra system you were subconsciously matching your chakra signature to the ambient nature chakra. It was what allowed you to sneak away from your little guard without them realizing. I suspect you’ll have a hard time achieving that now that it has gone back to its original form_ ~

 _‘Thanks,’_ Naruto said as he narrowly avoided the jutting piece of wood before continuing on _‘that’s a pain but what’s nature chakra?’_

~ _I wouldn’t mourn just yet, you will most likely be able to relearn the ability_ ~

_‘Nature chakra’_

~ _I was hoping you wouldn’t catch that_ ~ Naruto mentally leveled his best unimpressed look at the Bijuu ~ _fine. Nature chakra is basically the life-blood of the world. It exists in everyone and everything. Animals and plants are much more aware of it than humans as they live by the give and take that all things should_ ~

_‘But not humans?’_

~ _Not humans_ ~ Kurama confirmed ~ _you take more than you give and only make up for that imbalance in death. It is what makes it impossible for you humans to sense or interact with unless you receive help from a sage animal. I suspect the only reason that your ability originates from the nature chakra I have pulled through the White Room_ ~

 _‘You’re explaining that properly later but what d’you mean by_ pulled through the White Room!’

~ _later_ ~ he grumbled, closing his eyes in a facsimile of sleep instead of answering.

“Stupid, old foxes and their stupid laziness” Naruto muttered under his breath

“Hm, what was that Naruto?” asked Shiokawa-sensei

“Nothing”

He looked up at _thorns of a thistle_ while answering, they had reached the doorway to the classroom. Iruka-sensei had already headed in but Shiokawa-sensei had evidently hung back after hearing him say something. Wait a moment, what was . . . _crap_

~ _What- oh. Congratulations Naruto,_ ~ Kurama said dryly ~ _you have just broken the equivalent of three laws of reality_ ~

 

* * *

 

Sasuke spent three days after _~~Itachi~~_ the massacre wandering through the Uchiha compound. The bodies had been cleared out after _that night_ but the smell of blood was still in the air. He doubted it would ever fade.

Sasuke had spent those days properly forming his goal. To surpass _him_ and restore his clan’s honour through the only path available; vengeance. He would become strong, strong enough to kill him and only then would the clan rest in peace. He spent those three days locking up any part of him that screamed for his brother, that shouted about how _stupid_ he was being, that wanted to burst into tears and never stop. He spent three days and then all his work was unravelled.

He hadn’t even noticed the other kid until he was right in front of him “Are you playing hide ’n seek as well?”

“Wh- who the hell are you?” Sasuke spluttered at the sudden appearance of the sunny boy

“Oh, I’m Uzumaki Naruto”

The action of a response broke him out of the shock induced panic and reminded him that he was an _Uchiha_ , they were a noble clan and he would not misrepresent them. Still, the name rang a bell, he just couldn’t place exactly what it was that he couldn’t remember.

“Uchiha Sasuke”

“Ooh, so _that’s_ what that symbol on the walls was”

The boy looked totally unrepentant for entering the compound without permission and Sasuke vowed to get the wards up as soon as he could figure them out.

“Yes,” he ground out “Now what are you doing here?”

“Playing hide and seek, it looks like you’re on my team now ‘cause they’re hiding from you now”

Sasuke whipped around, scanning his surroundings. All that he could see were _now-empty, so very empty,_ buildings lining the road that the two were on. There was no sight or sound to possibly indicate that there was another person there. Perhaps the other boy was seeing things?

“There is no one else here but me”

“Well that’s kinda weird ‘cause I thought the Uchiha were a big clan and all but most of my friends are here. I still can’t find the other two though”

“The other Uchiha are dead, they were killed three days ago” If Sasuke’s voice was cold before it was worse than the Snow country now.

“Three days ago?” he nodded stiffly “Weird, Peace-san changed three days ago and disappeared. I think they might have gone after Tea Leaves-san, they’ve been missing for a while now. I mean, yeah, they _really_ hide every once in a while, like now, but they always come back really quickly. Tea Leaves-san has been gone for a long time.” Naruto’s face scrunched up at that declaration

“Who is ‘Peace-san’ and ‘Tea Leaves-san’?”

“I don’t know their actual names but they were always too fast for me to catch sight of them when I snuck out but I know they’re there.” Ah, they were clearly imaginary friends then.

“Well they aren’t here”

“Well the others are here. Normally they’re my guards but it looks like they’re watching over you for now so let’s stick together to make their lives easier so they can watch over both of us at the same time!”

Sasuke flinched backwards, “Guards?”

Naruto’s smile turned into a guilty look “Yeah, I mean technically they’re guards but I like to think of them as my friends because we play hide and seek a lot. They always come find me and I’m never really left alone unless I’m hiding so we’re friends” _ANBU_. Itachi had been a part of ANBU before he . . . _No._ Sasuke had other things to focus on, he could not afford to space out right now. Maybe if he learned more about the organization he could get a better idea of where he lay in terms of strength. He frantically backtracked.

“Who else is here?”

“The usual,” he waved his hand dismissively “there’s Moon-san and Okami-san, and Forest-san goes wherever Okami-san goes”

“How did you come up with their names” Maybe it had something to do with their skills?

“Oh, it’s just what they feel like though it’s more like nicknames because they’re _long_ ”

 _Feel like? You can’t_ feel _someone unless you’re talking about chakra so did that mean?_

“Are you a sensor?” Sasuke was genuinely curious. His clan was focused more on fire and genjutsu type techniques, it was extremely rare for there to be a natural born sensor to appear in their ranks. This led to a lack of information on what exactly sensors could do and how they did it.

“I _still_ don’t know what that means!” Naruto stamped his food “People are always talking about that stuff, sensor this, chakra lock that! Will someone please explain _what_ those are?!”

Sasuke blinked at the violent reaction to the simple question, if the boy was from any ninja clan he would already know that stuff but if he was a civilian he wouldn’t even know what chakra was in the first place. _The Academy!_ That’s where Sasuke had recognised him from! He was in the early attendance class with him! But that meant,

_“Stay away from that boy, Sasuke. He is a stain upon this village and will only bring dishonour on the clan if you interact with him.”_

It was from one of the clan members who had seen him leaving school, the same time as Naruto apparently. He was hit with a moment of indecision. On one hand, it would bring disgrace upon the Uchiha name and would go against his clan. On the other, his clan was dead and had little honour left anyways, a sensor would be a boon when hunting down Itachi. If only he learn the secret for how he sensed the ANBU then Sasuke could find Itachi!

“If you wish you may join me for tea and I could do you the favour of explaining sensing to you” It was a carefully worded offer but that did not seem to register with his classmate

“Sure!”

 

“No, no, no, no, no, no. You can’t put tomatoes in there, idiot, it’s a vegetable soup!”

“You’ve already said that multiple times, see, these ones don’t have seeds in them. So it’s not a vegetable.”

“You pulled them out!”

“They’re _green_ tomatoes they’re supposed to be used in cooking!”

“It’s a vegetable soup!”

“You said that ten times already!”

“It totally was not that many”

“It was”

“Was not”

“Was”

“Was not”

“Definitely was!”

Sasuke was beginning to regret inviting Naruto into his house. The other boy had taken one look at his spice cabinet and declared that he was going to make vegetable soup. Sasuke wasn’t about to let his classmate burn down his already damaged house so he tried to supervise. Then he tried putting tomatoes in even though the recipe that Naruto had scribbled down didn’t have any it because tomatoes made everything taste better and it had evolved from there. Tea had been totally forgotten.

The kitchen was one of the few rooms that had been left undamaged in the massacre. It wasn’t only his house that had been ruined either, the whole compound had been damaged. Walls had been torn down in the struggle, roofs had caved in, and there was lots of other minor damage scattered around as well. It would take ages to fix even if specialists came in to do the repairs. And Sasuke had decided within the first day of his contemplations that no one else would be allowed on his clan’s grounds. It would be up to him to fix everything. He was not expecting that there would be _ANBU_ or _a random classmate!_

“You! You snuck them in there!”

“You were distracted”

“You’ve ruined the entire soup!”

“Impossible, tomatoes go with everything”

“Even chocolate?”

“. . . Even chocolate”

 “You hesitated”

“Did not!”

“Did to”

The soup turned out rather okay even after Naruto admitted that he didn’t know how it was really supposed to taste. The two ate it over a long debate about tomatoes and ramen. Neither side was willing to concede to the other and neither wanted to. They had sat down to eat in living room which was the least damaged room that one would present to a guest. It was still by no means pristine, marks ran along the painted walls and the door had been broken off its hinges. Sasuke had put this down on his list of stuff he immediately needed to fix but he hadn’t started anything yet. He wouldn’t until he had properly mourned.

“Looks like your walls need a new coat of paint” His classmate had clearly never heard of a thing called tact.

“Hn”

“Well I’m going to interpret that as _why yes Naruto, it does need another coat of paint. Would you like to help me with it?_ Why yes Sasuke I would, I’m actually a master painter of walls” The voice was ridiculously high pitched but that wasn’t what had made Sasuke choke on his soup.

“Wait, what?”

“Uh, I’m going to paint your living room for you. I thought that was pretty obvious” Sasuke just continued to splutter “I mean, you’d need to get the paint because it is _your_ living room and I’ve been informed that orange is a horrible shade for walls. Which is blasphemy but like I said, your room”

Sasuke finally managed to pull his composure back together “I could paint this room better than you would ever be able to cobble together” he sniffed

“Is that a challenge?”

“No it’s a fact”

“Oh, it’s _that_ kind of challenge”

“It’s not a challenge!”

It was totally a challenge and Sasuke was going to _destroy_ Naruto. They couldn’t both paint the living room so Sasuke had been relegated to the master bedroom, even though it was, as Naruto had pointed out, _his_ house. He had gotten two different colours for the rooms, the bedroom would look nice in a rather vibrant green. Sasuke had given Naruto a pale beech purely because it would be easy to paint over when it was inevitably messed up.

Even with the competitive spirit, the work was actually rather therapeutic. The constant rolling of the brush over the walls was almost meditative. The first moment of proper peace he had gotten since- no. _Don’t think of that_. The project was a bit of a mess in the beginning before he got the hang of using the roller and getting all the drips off of it but Uchiha learned quickly. Sasuke was no exception to that.

He hadn’t even realized that he was just trimming things until Naruto popped into the room covered in paint splatters asking if he was done. Not to be beaten, he put down the brush he had been using to put a coat on the area next to the floor and headed to the living room. The work was . . . surprisingly competent. It appeared that Naruto had used himself to catch all the drips of paint because there were none on the floor or furniture. The coat was actually quite smooth and the colour looked nice in the evening light.

Wait. Evening light? It couldn’t have possibly been that long.

And yet, streaming through a broken window was the light from a sun that was just beginning to start to sink below the horizon. Sasuke had insisted that Naruto leave before dark so the two had to pick a winner. That would have been simple except neither was going to admit that the other’s was best even though Sasuke was _clearly_ the winner. Naruto suggested that they left it for the ANBU to decide which Sasuke agreed to only because it would get the blond out of the compound. He had the rest of the very cold soup for dinner and fell asleep to the waiting screams of the dead.

He had thought that would be the end of it. The boy had to go to the academy but Sasuke wasn’t allowed back for at least a month. His assignments had been turning up on his porch so he wouldn’t fall behind so that wasn’t a problem. He now realized it was probably one of the ANBU dropping them off but there wasn’t much he could do about that. He had turned on the wards to catch them or even lock them out, but that hadn’t worked since the work kept on appearing. Now Sasuke was debating whether the wards were just totally broken as a shock of blond hair bounced towards him.

“Hey Sasuke, whatcha doin’?”

“How did you get in here?” he chose to ignore Naruto’s question entirely

“Are we going to rehash this once more or are you talking about your new invisible wall”

“The barrier”

“Oh that’s what it was, I just snuck past it”

“You can’t sneak past it, it’s a dome”

Naruto shrugged “Same thing I do when playing hide and seek with ANBU-san” he waved in the direction of a grove of trees “Now, we gonna check who the winner is?”

“Don’t you have to go to the academy today?” he asked incredulously

“I skipped. Math is boring anyways. Now come on”

The walls of the rooms looked as barren as they had the night before, Sasuke didn’t know what Naruto expected to find but he kept looking at the walls. Sasuke was about to call it quits on waiting for whatever the blond was looking for when there was a shout of triumph.

“Look, right _there_ ”

Sasuke squinted and then blinked. Once. Twice. Three times and yep, it was still there. At the bottom of the corner of two walls was a tiny drawing of a wolf and a tree.

“Ha-ha, suck it. Okami-san and Forest-san like me better”

“Yeah, well what about Moon-san”

Sasuke wasn’t entirely convinced that Naruto hadn’t put those on himself. He was a bit more convinced when they found a crescent moon in the exact same place in the master bedroom. Naruto had been in the room for maybe five seconds, and he had been nowhere near that corner. He tuned out the other boy’s whining about how Moon-san betrayed him and focused on the empty space beside the mark. He had lost to this idiot, it was unacceptable.

“I want a rematch”

“Same colours as last time?”

“No, we will have to paint other rooms anyways so might as well get different colours.”

“Hmm” the other boy contemplated something for a moment before announcing it to Sasuke “We need a prize”

“A what?”

“A prize. You know, for whenever one of us wins. Maybe it can be money or getting the other to do their homework. . .” he trailed off looking for some input.

“Food”

“Huh?”

“The loser will cook dinner for the winner, if we have a tie we will cook together”

“Who pays for supplies?” he asked suspiciously

“Loser, obviously”

“I’m in”

Sasuke could laugh manically now but he wasn’t the cliché sort of evil mastermind. As much as he hated to admit it, his cooking sucked. Naruto clearly had more experience making meals and Sasuke was going to take advantage of that fact. He was going to win this competition with all _three_ votes this time.

 

He- he lost. Sasuke stared uncomprehendingly at the score marks. Naruto was cheering once again in the background. (He wouldn’t be later when he had to taste Sasuke’s cooking but he was currently enjoying the moment too much to think about that)

“Rematch!” Sasuke declared.

He lost the next one once more but won the one after that. Victory had never tasted so sweet, literally. Then there was another re-match and another until finally they ran out of rooms in the house. After the initial losing streak they were pretty evenly matched, Sasuke assumed it had something to do with the fact that Naruto had obviously painted walls before. The Uchiha was almost disappointed that the competition would be coming to an end. Then Naruto pointed out that there were like, a bajillion other houses lying empty with tons of walls inside. So the challenge was taken up once more.

The next challenge didn’t come up until after Sasuke went back to the academy. This was mainly because Naruto couldn’t actually skip every day of school despite what he had led Sasuke to believe. According to him, Shiokawa-sensei was really scary when mad so Naruto could skip twice a week at max. This was mainly because of history and math according to him. Unfailingly, Sasuke waited until Naruto came back over to look at the scores. So his month of ‘resting’ period (read: house arrest) ended and a week had gone by before they tried any of the other houses. It was Sunday, their only weekend day even though civilians got two. The painting usually took up an entire day so they couldn’t do it during a school night.

The first time Sasuke stepped inside one of the houses his stomach did it’s best to churn in an attempt to get him to hurl. The smell of dried blood was faint but all too present for someone who had experienced it fresh. Naruto coughed a couple times beside him and Sasuke turned to look at him, wondering if the other boy could smell the blood. The blond coughed once more, blinked a couple times, and turned to face Sasuke as well.

“Dust” he explained

Sasuke accepted the answer to his unspoken question with a nod before they split up to find a room. The tell-tale smell of paint helped stave of the burning in his nose but Sasuke still couldn’t focus. He lost that round with only Forest-san giving him a point. It was a pity point and he knew it, he was sure Naruto knew it as well but the other boy didn’t gloat.

“Hey, want to make dinner at my place tonight instead?” Sasuke was faced with the other boy’s trademark blinding grin and he couldn’t find it in himself to say no.

That was how he found himself in the three room apartment that Naruto called home. Sasuke had a hard time even calling it an apartment. The whole heating system appeared to have shut off and Naruto was trying to compensate with an absurd amount of blankets covering the floor. The rooms were tiny, to the point that they always seemed to be in each other’s way and there was an absurd amount of glass ready to break. Sasuke made no comment on any of that. Instead, he accepted the blanket and hot coco that was shoved at him and took a seat on the island that served as a dinner table. His coaster was a large yellow and purple tanuki which obviously was supposed to mean something but Sasuke couldn’t grasp what it was and summarily chose to ignore it.

He allowed himself to get lost in Naruto’s inane babble that he spewed out while making the dinner that was _Sasuke’s job_. It was a bowl of ramen and Sasuke couldn’t even work up the energy to make a sarcastic remark, especially since it had tomatoes in it.

“An’ so that’s why I have a cactus in my garden. And oh, would you look at the time it’s far too dark for you to walk back home so it looks like we’re having a sleepover.”

Sasuke blinked owlishly at that last sentence before realizing that Naruto was indeed right. The sun had set at least an hour ago and in this darkness Sasuke wouldn’t even be able to see across the street let alone find his way back to the compound.

“You planned this!” he accused

“No changing it now” he trilled “You’re stuck here for the night and you need sleep, now go take a shower”

Naruto’s water pressure was shit but it helped him peel of the layer of dust that had clung to him. The scent of blood finally faded away and Sasuke almost collapsed from the exhaustion that hit him. A pair of loose fitting pants and a dark blue t-shirt had been set aside as pajamas and he barely managed to pull them on before collapsing on to the futon.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he shot awake with cries for help still ringing in his ears but it was still very much dark out. His breathing was harsh to his own ears and he was covered in sweat, he debated taking a shower before realizing it would probably wake up Naruto. He couldn’t let the other boy see him like this. With thoughts of the massacre and Itachi swirling in his head, pulling the air from his lungs and choking his throat with unshed tears.

“You’re thinking too much” Well there goes the plan of keeping the living furnace asleep “Go back to sleep”

Naruto rolled over and dropped back into dreamland. Sasuke managed a feeble snort, only Naruto would wake up to tell someone to go back to sleep just to roll over and do it himself. Still, it was good advice even if would wake up again in another hour or so. Sasuke flopped back down on his pillow and closed his eyes.

 

He woke to the sizzling of bacon. The scent overpowering his senses and forcibly dragging him into the kitchen where Naruto was frying it. The blond looked as bright and chipper as ever which should be illegal this early in the morning. Sasuke glared in the vague direction of the sun that had woken him up in a promise of murdering it as soon as he found a way.

“Not a morning person are you?” Sasuke growled in response “Coffee?” he nodded his head once

He wasn’t an addict to the black stuff like some and watered it down with lots of milk before drinking it but it certainly helped in the mornings. The mug was placed in front of him, still steaming even with the milk in it and he gave it his best attempt to down it in one go. He got about two-thirds through before having to stop to take a breath. His tongue felt sandy with burned skin but the caffeine had started to kick in and he felt less like a walking corpse.

“I’m using your shower”

“Go right ahead, breakfast will probably be ready when you’re out”

“I’m going to win the next round”

“Sure you are”

Over the many rooms that they had painted, Sasuke had acquired quite the collection of paint colours. On occasion they used some old ones but often they bought new colours for each room. The Uchiha account had an absolutely ridiculous sum of money in it and it wasn’t like anyone else was using it. Sasuke also knew that Naruto only pretended to not notice the bills he slipped into Gama-chan. Damn it, he was using the name as well now. Naruto was infective like that, he grew on you like moss, or even more appropriately fungus, except one hundred times faster. On this occasion Naruto had picked out an orange and Sasuke had bought himself a white. What Naruto didn’t know was that he had three other old buckets of paint already waiting in his room. He won unanimously with his stripe of yellow, purple, and green.

“That’s cheating, you’re cheating!”

“Not cheating, I only used the paint that had been bought with your knowledge”

“You used more than one colour!”

“You can too if you want!”

“It’s cheating!”

“Nope”

Naruto painted his next room a sunset with red at the bottom working up to yellow. That one also won with a unanimous votes and the war was on once more. It was only after that first multi-coloured wall that Sasuke realized why he had such an adverse reaction to the other house. It wasn’t because people had been killed there, he was living in the house where his own parents were murdered. It was because of the scent of blood, or lack thereof. At some indistinguishable point, the scent of blood had faded from his own house.

It should have been impossible, the smell of paint had never made it disappear before. He had blown hundreds of ryō on air fresheners and scented candles that did absolutely nothing. Mixed in with the scent of cooking and natural air that was still blowing in through broken windows was another scent. The base from which everything else was stacked on, it was exactly the same as Naruto’s apartment. The scent was vaguely familiar apart from that as well, it was almost like when his cousin Shisui had taken him down to the river. Except more salty and open, it was weird and hard to describe.

 

If Sasuke had ever been taken to the coast before he would have recognized it in an instant; a sea breeze.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiiiiiiiiii. *peeks out from corner with jazz hands. Not dead.
> 
> I bet you can guess who all the ANBU are, moon's probably going to be a bit obscure but eh. We have sensing _and_ chakra all in one go. And painting is officially Sasuke's unofficial form of therapy mixed in with gaining a new friend.  
>  Sidenotes: You know I didn't actually realize the 'challenge' parallels with Kakashi and Gai and Sasuke and Naruto until I started writing it. Naruto, could smell the blood in the house but he used Yugito's sensory dimming technique so it didn't bother him.


	7. Do Bugs Eat Tomatos?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The classic class assembles
> 
> and
> 
> Roushi gets very drunk

The two years spent in the early academy class passed rather quickly after Iruka-sensei left to finish his certifications. Naruto was sad to see him go, Iruka had only been around for two weeks but he had treated Naruto better than most of the village. It was refreshing in the same way that having Sasuke as a friend, not that the other boy would admit it, was refreshing. That combined with Ichiraku Ramen, the Old Man, and the ANBU team still following him around was the sum total of connections outside the other jinchuuriki.

Now, Naruto was not an idiot. No matter what the village believed, and he wasn’t oblivious either. The history of Konoha had practically been beaten into his head in by Roushi and Shiokawa-sensei, there was no way that he wouldn’t recognize the Uchiha clan symbol on sight. The Uchiha massacre was also an incident of international scale.

Technically the other countries had no part in it but a shinobi on the level of Uchiha Itachi going rouge was a big deal. Add in the eradication of one of Konoha’s founding clans and it was at the top of every nation’s information pool. According to B, ninjas were even bigger gossips than housewives and the other jinchuuriki had the news within a day. And honestly, what _else_ was Naruto going to do when he heard that someone’s entire extended family had been murdered and no one was doing anything to help him out. Like, he didn’t know, _therapy_ _maybe._ So obviously if Jiji wasn’t going to do anything Naruto would just have to be his friend instead.

It was a bit of a shame that the ANBU had probably reported his sensing ability to Jiji after he first revealed it but he had to do _something_ to make sure Sasuke didn’t kick him out right away. He totally would have as well, Naruto could tell that he was a jerk like that, but oh well. Too late to turn back now. (oh who was he kidding, the startled look on his face was _hilarious_ ).

And so that was the process that ended with Naruto gaining his first non-jinchuuriki friend. Even if Sasuke apparently didn’t know what ‘friends’ were. It probably didn’t help that the other boy had the demeanor of a glacier and tried to ignore everyone else.

Besides, according to Sasuke, the only reason Naruto hung around the compound so much was because it had a library. He wasn’t exactly right but it wasn’t like Naruto had access to the Chunin library and he wasn’t about to try his hand at sneaking in. Way too much risk for too little gain, maybe when he was older. Back to the point, if Sasuke was still in denial about their friendship then he could make up excuses for Naruto all he wanted.

If Naruto spent half his time at the Uchiha compound painting, he spent only about a sixth of it in the library. Sasuke used it even more frequently than him, which Naruto supposed was fair because it _was_ his library, and had apparently turned into some sort of neat freak because of it. Seriously, Naruto leaves one set of scrolls to look at on a later date out on the desk and Sasuke gives him a twenty minute long lecture. It was almost as bad as Shiokawa-sensei.

It was also a bit ridiculous, especially when he was practically covered in paint after every competition and _that_ didn’t seem to bother him.

The library itself had been sectioned off into six main categories by the Uchiha with smaller divisions inside the already existing categories. There was Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Chakra Control, Sharingan, and Miscellaneous as the main ones with the divisions being specifics like elemental chakra. Sasuke had expressly forbidden Naruto from going into the sharingan section before he had even set foot in the library for the first time. He had even set up a barrier in front of the entrance to the section to prevent Naruto from getting in. Not that Naruto minded much, if he really wanted to he could just match his signature to the barrier and slip through like he did for the one around the compound. Besides, the really important stuff would definitely not be in the main compound library, it was probably hidden somewhere where only the head family knew.

Kurama had spent _weeks_ grumbling about the Uchiha and their sharingan after hearing Sasuke explain the kekkei genkai to him. It wasn’t very in depth but it was enough to set the demon fox into a sulk which gave Naruto a head-ache because of the whining. One would think a centuries old entity made up of pure energy would be more mature than that but apparently Kurama wasn't.

From what Naruto could tell Sasuke mainly stuck to the taijutsu, chakra control, and fire style category of the ninjutsu section. Naruto had briefly skimmed the taijutsu section but only ended up taking out some stretches and exercises to copy down. The Uchiha had their own taijutsu styles that were based entirely around the sharingan so they were of no use to Naruto. He didn’t have the control necessary to try out any jutsus and he still hadn’t figured out his own affinity yet so he avoided the ninjutsu section. Genjutsu was simply out of the question, the other jinchuuriki except Yagura had never been able to weave a genjutsu. Yagura himself had admitted to only knowing five in total which he had spent years mastering. The plus side to that was no one expected a genjutsu from him so he could use them to surprise his foes as long as they knew who he was. It had lost its value after he faked his death but what had Yagura been expecting? For it to not have?

Naruto pretty much stuck with chakra control and miscellaneous areas. He could stick a leaf to his head, with immense concentration, but from what he understood that was the most basic chakra expression exercise there was. Which made sense when you think about it, he was an academy student after all. The chakra control section was very step by step so while he was learning to stick multiple leaves to his face he focused on miscellaneous. If it was this hard to get the second chakra control exercise down Naruto didn’t even want to _think_ about the rolling pebble exercise that came next.

Miscellaneous was by far the biggest section of the library, it encompassed mainly specialities and bits of other random knowledge. There was a heavy focus on things like infiltration, strategy, kenjutsu, law (they _had_ run the police station), and forgery. Other stuff like revenue, shinobi education, medical ninjutsu, and sealing were less common and most likely frowned upon hence the smaller sections. Much, much smaller sections. That last one was extremely frustrating for Naruto as there were still only basic books on fuinjutsu. Sure there was some new stuff that might be useful but nothing that could help free Fū of her collar or fix whatever happened to Gaara!

That didn’t stop him from searching the entire section multiple times even before the main academy years started of course.

The final exam of the early years came and went with Naruto passing with a solid seventy percent. Shiokawa-sensei had genuinely congratulated him on working hard enough to get the mark but Naruto had to force a smile onto his face. He probably could have gotten a ninety if he had _really_ tried.

If he had focused and studied the material with actual dedication. If he could have done it without being accused of cheating and getting thrown out. Naruto could have been one of the best students and she was congratulating him for a seventy. It was hard not to be bitter at that fact but he smiled anyways. This was what was expected of him and all the unintended patronization was worth not getting kicked out.

There was only two weeks between the end of the year and the new term starting, it was a short amount of time and Naruto was dreading its end. As the days ticked down he got more and more concerned. Sure Shiokawa-sensei got mad at him for skipping occasionally but she was really cool and answered his questions when he asked. It had become more obvious after Iruka-sensei came but even before that she had marked his assignments fairly.

Naruto _really_ wished that she would be his teacher but he also knew for a fact that she was going to stay with the early class. He wasn’t sad to see the back of his math and history teachers though. The ones whose names he hadn’t bothered to learn even after two years. Naruto wasn’t quite sure why those two subjects got their own teacher but he wasn’t complaining about having them for only one class instead of all of them.

Yu-san had called the two idiots but had also explained that the majority of the population would always be prejudiced towards a jinchuuriki. Especially towards one who held a Bijuu that had recently attacked the village. _Or appeared to attack the village_ , Naruto mentally corrected himself before Kurama started sulking. Again. Yugito had explained it to him once.

_“There’s a saying that people fear what they don’t understand. I disagree, people fear what is stronger than them. Do you know what this means?” Naruto shook his head “It means that you are stronger than the ones who fear you, so watch out for those who don’t”_

Yu-san’s logic was a tiny bit twisted, after all, weren’t friends supposed to not fear you even if you are stronger than them? But she wasn’t entirely wrong either. Naruto could probably take a regular civilian with just academy training. Not to mention the extra stuff dropped onto him by the other jinchuuriki. But if Naruto feared the beginning of the new term because of the new teacher was it because they would be stronger than him?

After a couple days spent thinking about it he decided that the answer was no. Jiji was stronger than him, he was the strongest person in the whole village but Naruto didn’t fear him. Just like he didn’t fear Shiokawa-sensei who could and would kick his butt if he skipped too many classes in a row, or any of the other jinchuurikis. He feared the new teacher because they would have power over the rest of his life. Power that could very easily be abused to keep him from becoming a traditional ninja.

Naruto had heard many horror stories about what happened to jinchuuriki who couldn’t become a ninja through the normal sense. The scary thing was that all of them had agreed that a re-sealing was the best option. Naruto knew he preferred it to becoming an emotionless tool.

After realizing what his distraction was about Yugito had 'gifted' him half of holiday nights off of training so he could talk to the other jinchuurikis. Naruto probably would have refused but he knew better than to try after Yugito had narrowed her eyes at his protests. Naruto was not about to risk dancing lessons for the next month. Even if he’d rather be training.

Despite the other jinchuurikis’ best efforts, by the time the start of the year rolled around Naruto had all but convinced himself that his new teacher was going to hate him. Would purposely fail him and totally ignore him. The day of, he slunk into class a couple minutes before the bell rang with none of his usual theatrics. Making the teacher hate him first day would not improve his chances of passing.

Naruto ignored the questioning look Sasuke shot him and the other boy almost looked like he going to come over but apparently thought better of it at the last moment. The teacher actually wasn’t there yet so Naruto took his time to survey the class. From the early years there was only him, Sasuke, and two other kids from a small shinobi family. There appeared to be a lot of clan children in the class as well from the amount of symbols on their backs, but the majority was still civilians like most academy classes.

In the back of his head Naruto could hear the jinchuuriki loudly making bets about who would get dropped first and who would last at least the year. Pulling out a sheet of paper he scribbled down the amounts and nicknames to reference later. He placed his own bet on the brunette in the second row failing out pretty quickly. She had an air about her that practically screamed _my parents are forcing me to do this_.

The bell rang just as the teacher got inside the door with a large stack of papers obscuring their face. Hurriedly, they staggered over to the desk where they set down the stack before turning towards the class revealing a familiar face.

“Ah, hello class. I will be your teacher for the next four years, my name is-”

“Iruka-sensei!” Naruto clapped a hand to his mouth as everyone turned to look at him, cheeks aflame

“Oh, yes, thank you Naruto for introducing me but I think I had it covered.” There were a lot of giggles at that “Now, everyone I’m going to pass around a sheet with the course aims for this year and a sheet for you to fill out as an introduction. But first, attendance.”

After class had ended Naruto sulked near the back of the class room, watching the other kids file out of the room in a mad rush. Even Sasuke was caught up in the stream of children, though the look that was shot his way made sure Naruto knew that Sasuke wasn’t going to forget being abandoned to the mob.

“Say Naruto,” He startled at Iruka’s voice “I don’t suppose you would mind helping me clean up while you’re waiting?”

As the chalk board was cleaned, pencils and paper gathered, and lost items collected Naruto piped up with the question that had been bugging him all day.

“Iruka-sensei,” The teacher looked over at him “why are you teaching my class.” Belatedly he realized how that sounded and hurriedly tried to cover up his mistake “not that I’m complaining or anything, you’re an amazing teacher an’ it’s really awesome that you are but I thought you were still getting your certifications ‘n stuff.” Iruka looked mildly amused at the question but only paused a moment before answering.

“Shiokawa-san actually recommended that I take my exams early because of my performance in her classroom. I passed and I suppose it was merely coincidence that I was assigned to be in charge of your class.”

There was silence once more. Honestly, Naruto didn’t know what to say, that he had hoped that Iruka-sensei had requested him as a student? No he couldn’t say that. So instead of talking he just kept on cleaning.

It was barely twenty minutes after class had ended that Naruto left the academy and yet there wasn’t a single other person in sight. It would be eerie if it wasn’t quite so disappointing. Earlier this space had been filled with parents awaiting their kid’s exit from the building, maybe his own would have been waiting for him if they still could. His normal ANBU guard wasn’t even there! The first day of school had always been filled with disappointment but this year seemed doubly so. Throughout the year he would get desensitized to the ache of loneliness as children started to walk back in groups or alone, yet it never failed to hit in in the gut. Every. Single. Time. He didn’t even bother plastering a smile on his face as he walked home.

Naruto nearly tripped over his own feet when he opened his apartment door to find Sasuke sitting at the kitchen island sipping a mug of tea. He was pouring over some scroll or other and didn’t even properly acknowledge Naruto’s entrance. Unless throwing a kunai at him counted ( _it most definitely did not!)_.

“What- what are you doing here!”

“Reading, I thought that was obvious” Sasuke didn’t even look up from the roll of paper as he responded to Naruto’s shout of surprise.

“Couldn’t you have done that at the compound?”

“No”

“Oh, alright then. Make yourself at home” It was said sarcastically but apparently that didn’t register with the Uchiha because he just took another sip of tea. Wait a minute . . . _that was his mug!_ Sasuke had stolen his mug!

Naruto threw up his hands and decided to just ignore him and hope he would go away. That tactic evidently did not work as Sasuke was still there when dinner rolled around. He had already finished his first scroll and was half way done his second one, Naruto was starting to wonder if he had actually planned coming over and it wasn’t a spontaneous thing. Then again, spontaneous wasn’t exactly Sasuke’s forte so maybe he had actually thought this out.

“You’re making dinner”

“What!”

“I’m a guest, you have to make dinner”

“You aren’t a guest, you just showed up uninvited and let yourself in”

“I have a key”

“You stole that!”

“Hn”

Naruto did end up making dinner and he made sure not to put a single slice of tomato in _anything_. Naruto wasn’t exactly a master of passive-aggressiveness but the pettiness of it all was extremely satisfying. Sasuke glowered at him all through dinner but he had absolutely nothing on Shiokawa-sensei.

“Do you think that teachers get lessons on how to be scary?” Sasuke very pointedly ignored the question, stabbing the noodles on his plate like they were Naruto’s face. Maybe it was a bad idea not including tomatoes in dinner, Naruto didn’t want to get killed over some fruit, vegetable, whatever.

One particularly violent glare after another conversation starter and Naruto was regretting his life choices. He shut up.

 

Apparently teachers _did_ get lessons on how to be scary because Iruka-sensei was terrifying. Naruto didn’t know a human’s head could swell to that size without exploding like they did in movies. It wasn’t like it was Naruto’s fault that even Iruka-sensei couldn’t make math interesting. If Naruto _hadn’t_ skipped then he would have _died_ of boredom.

~ _how did your sensei even catch you if not even ANBU could find you?_ ~

‘ _I don’t know he just appeared out of nowhere_ , _it’s kinda terrifying_ ’

~ _Matabi’s jinchuuriki is going to kill you if she finds out you can’t hide from a chunin_ ~

‘ _Please don’t remind me_ ’

The fact that Iruka could always find him did not stop Naruto from skipping lessons. Not one bit.

He almost regretted joining the academy two years early because now the stuff was doubly boring because he had already been taught it. Which was exactly why he ditched class now. Back in the early class ditching was originally to hang out with Sasuke and afterwards it was just to get out of class. Occasionally Kiba would skip with him but it wasn’t too often, they vandalized some buildings and played a few pranks but nothing too serious. Naruto would deny to the end of his days that he was the one to paint the ANBU aboveground headquarters bright pink.

See, nothing serious.

As far as he could tell it was usually just the two of them who skipped, unless someone else was sick so they couldn’t come. Naruto only found out that he was wrong the day he properly met Shino.

Naruto hadn’t skipped in two weeks before that day and both he and Iruka-sensei were getting twitchy. Said twitchiness meant that Iruka-sensei would be onto him as soon as he walked through the door and didn’t see Naruto in a seat.

Iruka-sensei could still track him down even with his signature blended into plants but what if it was matched to an animal like a bee? It was a theory that Naruto was willing to test out. Which was how he found himself inching along a tree branch towards an active hive with a glass jar in his hands.

“You do realize that those hornets are poisonous, correct?”

“Wait, what” Naruto did a double take as he realized there was another person practically right next to him

Startled he lost his grip and slid sideways on the branch, hitting something and knocking it loose as he flailed before finally falling out of the tree. It was a short fall but it still took Naruto a bit to orient himself after he hit the ground. And there was the other kid, standing right in front of him.

“Woah, that’s kind of creepy the way you just fade into the background, I couldn’t even tell you were there until you spoke up” it was genuinely impressive as was getting down the tree faster then Naruto could get up from a fall.

“I am told that a lot, yes”

“So how. . . Oh! It’s your colony! They’re disguising your chakra signature so it feels like a natural part of the environment” Naruto said bouncing up and down on the spot at his discovery. Already ignoring the damage from the fall as Kurama fixed it with a grumble about stupid brats.

“You are a sensor” it was a statement, not a question like Sasuke’s had been so he was probably more observant than Naruto’s friend.

“Ugh, why is that always the first reaction I get, is there really nothing else noticeable about me?”

“You wear a lot of orange” the other boy was still talking in the same monotone voice as he had throughout the entire conversation and _that_ was impressive.

“That's true”

“What is on your sleeve?”

“What?” Naruto turned his spectacularly orange sleeve over to see some yellow-brown substance marring the colour “I don’t know”

“Run”

“What?

“Hornets” 

“Good idea” At the sound of angry buzzing Naruto grabbed the other boy’s sleeve and took off running

Their conversation had gone on long enough for the hornets to stop being dazed from their abrupt fall and consequential smashing of their hive on the ground.

Naruto blamed Shino for getting him into this situation, never mind the fact that he had been the one trying to capture some in the first place. The blond vaguely wondered if Kurama could heal him from the maybe-lethal toxin in the hornet’s stings. But by the way the fox was laughing he probably wouldn’t even try.

The next time the two talked it was Naruto who approached Shino during lunch break at the academy. Four days after the hornet incident Shino had been sitting in a shaded back corner by himself eating his lunch when the blond bounced up to him.

“Hey, Shino, I don’t suppose your colony would like some fresh tomatoes?”

“Why?” he seemed vaguely suspicious of Naruto’s offer. Good for him! That would probably keep him from getting poisoned sometime in the future.

“Because, Sasuke is a ramen-hating idiot” Shino gazed back with a slight bewilderment until Naruto clarified “I painted an entire room in a ramen theme and even though I _lost_ that round” he shot a dirty look at the top of a nearby tree “He still found it pertinent to take revenge by commandeering a section of my balcony to plant tomatoes. That was a while ago 'n now the corner is more of a vegetable and spice garden now then purely tomatoes but the first batch was ready for harvesting yesterday 'n it’ll _really_ bug him if I don’t eat 'em”

Shino was possibly even more confused after that explanation but evidently decided not to push it further and just take the offered tomatoes for his hive. They were ripe and juicy and seemed to be the perfect kind for bugs to eat, if nothing else it would be an interesting experiment to see if his hive had a reaction to eating material food and not just pure chakra. Perhaps a small section of the colony could be sacrificed.

“I don’t suppose you mind teaching me a bit about bees do you? I’d rather not have to go running around half the village before jumping in a river to get rid of some hornets next time”

Shino could practically _feel_ his life expectancy shortening as he opened his mouth to reply. Still, it wasn’t often that a non-clan member was willing to start a conversation. He could afford to wait and see how this played out. He was also just a bit curious about why the last Uchiha was starting a vegetable garden on Naruto’s balcony.

 

* * *

 

Roushi remembered Mito Uzumaki. Even now, slumped on a wooden bar with his vision obscured by an empty Sake bottle he could remember her. His back cracked as he stood up to order another bottle, or five, or ten. No matter how drunk he ever got, the feel of her dark eyes on him lingered, disapproving. Roushi could always pretend he didn’t know what her ghost was disappointed about but he was too out of it to bother right now.

It was impossible to forget the regal Uzumaki, there was an air that always hung around her for as long as Roushi could remember and probably long before that, that had nothing to do with her chakra presence. Roushi had been the last of the jinchuuriki to meet her before she had passed into the hands of the Shinigami. If Killer B had become a jinchuuriki just four years earlier then he might have been able to catch a glimpse of her before every discernable trace was wiped out. Yagura had come close as well but Roushi was the oldest of the current set of jinchuuriki and even he had only been a child when he first met her. He had always been a brash, overconfident kid but in front of her, he had felt small and insignificant. Like he had caught the attention of someone who had done more and seen more then he could ever dream up in his entire life.

Mito Uzumaki was not just the wife of the Shodaime Hokage, she was an empress of an island nation and she had certainly looked the part. She was pristine in every way but not delicate like a porcelain doll. There was always an invisible edge to her, warning you that she was someone dangerous. Her dark red hair was pulled atop her head into two rolls secured by hair pins with three clips holding back her bangs. Two sealing tags constantly hung from the rolls of hair which Roushi had never figured out the purpose of.

Her eyes were dark and her skin was surprisingly fair for someone who grew up on an island nation with lots of sun. The most recognizable feature aside from her hair had to be the purple rhombus centred on her forehead. Tsunade Senju had a purple diamond of her own that mimicked it. The diamond was sharper though, not quite the same as Mito’s. That didn’t stop Roushi from turning white as a sheet the first time he saw the updated bingo book.

The seals inscribed on the floor of the White Room had been her life’s work. Even though she had been finished all the main seals by the time he had become a jinchuuriki she had still been adding more to the edges, almost as an afterthought. Those nights were some of the only times she ever appeared in the White Room. Roushi had no clue how long the White Room had existed or if it had come into existence with the jinchuuriki’s creation but somehow those seals were woven into the very fabric of the place.

Lately, on the rare nights when he was the only one aware of the White Room, Roushi would appear to search for the presence he knew would always be there. _Golden ocean breeze_. It would be impossible to find if you didn’t know what you were looking for and Roushi was the only person left alive who did.

There had been no indication that the Kyuubi was going to be transferred to a new host, it hadn’t crossed any of the jinchuuriki’s minds at the time. Bijuu were transferred to new hosts periodically but Mito was a constant, had been a constant. She was the longest living jinchuuriki and then she was gone. Shields as flawless as ever until the moment she disconnected from the link and the White Room forever. Her death couldn’t have been long after. No one survived a Bijuu’s extraction. All there had remained was four words, whispered through the link right before she left. They had hung between the minds of the jinchuuriki for a few moments before they too faded away.

_Take care of her_

The words were still ringing in his ears as he chugged a new bottle. No amount of alcohol had ever managed to drown it out. The words hadn’t been directed at any of them specifically but they still targeted Roushi. Even now, decades after her death.

There had been no grand speech or ceremony. The world had not shaken down to its foundations, the White Room had been perfectly still even as the colour faded from the door. And only minutes later had the new jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi had been connected in her stead.

Kushina had red hair as well but much more vivid, vibrant in the way that fire was vibrant. A veritable storm of energy that crashed into the White Room. She held none of Mito’s grace, she was loud and brash and took far too long in building up her own shields, the ones that would inevitably fail on the night of her death. Roushi had learned how to shield from Mito herself and yet no one, not one of them offered to help her block the link. They all failed in that way, disregarding her predecessor’s words like one would discard a rusted kunai. There was no help for Kushina, no words of advice, or even small chatter like what filled the link now.

For a long time Roushi would blame it on the war. Tensions were high and no one from another village was a friend. Maybe even no one from your own village. But Roushi was far, far older now and he knew it wasn’t just the war.

Some nights Kushina would rage and scream into the silence of the White Room. Calling for someone to come out because she knew they were there so _why wouldn’t they answer?_ Some nights she sat by herself doing things that Roushi never bothered to discover. Other nights she disappeared into her mindscape like the rest of them. As time went on the latter option became more and more frequent and Roushi had to bury himself in mission just to prevent himself from dropping into the room to bring her energy back into it. There was total and utter silence. When the war broke out there had been no indication from the White Room. Kushina had no warning.

Roushi was wound up and dropped onto the island, like a bomb just waiting to explode. The sidewalks of Uzushio ran with blood. He was an Iwa shinobi first and because of that he killed every Uzushio shinobi he came across, wreathed in the blood red cloak that Son Gokū was only too happy to provide. Roushi was Iwa first and jinchuuriki second, that was how it had always been. He would blame the deaths of the Uzushio conspirators who had brought the barrier down on the haze. It had not been the haze.

Roushi had taken that information packet and memorized each and every face and had hunted them down. Any sort of satisfaction those deaths had brought had faded out over the years leaving only the grim assurance that they had not gone unpunished.

He was still Iwa though and so he killed Kiri and tore Uzushio to the ground. For as much as he was keeping its secrets from the waiting hands of his nation he was also burying its people. In the end he needn’t have bothered. The island itself had forced them off, Roushi along with the others.

Kushina had known. She had known that the only way Uzushio would fall so quickly was because of another Bijuu. She also knew who had accessed their Bijuu’s chakra on the day of the attack, it always was obvious when someone had tapped into the power of the tailed beasts. The Rokubi’s jinchuuriki had been brought down by Uzushio and finished off by Iwa (not that anyone would ever know the second had been involved and they never would).

There was only one other person to blame that Kushina could reach: Roushi. She had screamed and raged for weeks at his barriers, it was painfully like what she used to do to all of them for abandoning her but so much more focused. Kushina could never truly pierce the myriad of tunnels that made up his mindscape but her shouts of anger rang through both his head and the White Room.

That had been the start of the war between the jinchuuriki.

Roushi had been a jinchuuriki in the Second Great Shinobi War, he had been turned into one a year before it had started. Iwa was at least smart enough not to send one of their jinchuuriki into battle with only a year’s worth of experience under his belt but it didn’t stop the sight of dying comrades brought into healing tents. So during the Second Shinobi War Roushi did not see battle in the material or immaterial. In the Third he saw both.

It was the Sanbi’s host who started it. There had been less jinchuuriki then. The Ichibi wasn’t sealed, neither was the Nibi, the Rokubi was nowhere close to reforming, and the Gobi’s jinchuuriki died just two years into the war.

The Chigiri was violent and brutal and their last remaining jinchuuriki exemplified that by attacking the other jinchuuriki in the immaterial itself. Even when he was killed not even a year into the war the practice continued. The jinchuuriki of the Nibi would be created in the middle of the war but then, more than ever before, he still couldn’t help. The Sanbi’s new jinchuuriki was killed before they could properly hear the White Room and that had been a blessing in disguise for them. They never knew the agony of a constant screaming in your head. There wasn’t a day that went by without the ringing continuing, growing louder and louder until even the White Room started to crumble. Ironically, it was the only thing that saved his life.

Kushina had been targeting his door, it was rarely anyone else for her and it had been the final rush on a Konoha trench they had been sieging for days. Roushi had fallen face first into the dirt, legs crumpling, as the first wave of kunai appeared. There had been no blade imbedded in his leg that would cause such a disability, it was a targeted attack on his shields right as he had turned away his focus to the battle. He’d been incapacitated, forced to watch as his allies were cut down by the man who would later be known as the yellow flash. He had been one of the few survivors of the massacre of hundreds of shinobi. On that day especially Mito’s words rang in his head.

_Take care of her_

Roushi had done nothing of the sort. He had left her isolated, alone, scared when she first became a jinchuuriki. He had destroyed her home and her family and no self-proclaimed vengeance on her behalf could ever remotely make up for it. He had been deluding himself even thinking of it. To this very day, holed up in some random bar spending all his money trying to get drunk he still didn’t know why Kushina had done it.

Maybe she hadn’t known that it would save his life but he highly doubted that. She knew where Namikaze was going to be that day and she also most likely knew that it had been the same front as him. Kushina could have been hoping to catch him on the battle field itself but everyone knows that a shinobi that randomly collapses and doesn't move is often dead. The Namikaze wouldn’t have stopped to check. So why, why had she saved him? He doubted he would ever figure it out.

At the end of the war he had turned in his headband. Roushi had seen enough death for a hundred lifetimes and had killed enough to stain his soul for any amount of reincarnations. It was a testament to his friendship with the Tsuchikage that he was not killed on the spot. Yet he walked out of Iwagakure with his life and Son Gokū’s seal intact. 

He only went back once, for Han. To teach him because he couldn’t teach anyone else and the other Iwa jinchuuriki couldn’t learn anywhere else except from him.

Roushi knew that everyone had assumed that when Kushina had said Naruto’s name that she was telling them who was replacing her. Fū hadn’t started calling him that until he had said it himself but even she had suspected. 

Roushi knew better than that.

He'd heard the words of one passing on the lifelong burden to a successor and that wasn't it. Not to mention that Kushina was too soft to condemn a newborn to this cursed existence. Combined with the boy's looks, far more common of Suna then Konoha but Kushina would never betray her own village, made the realization easy to deduce. It was a wonder that nobody had realized that Naruto was the son of the yellow flash.

If Iwa knew they wouldn't stop at anything to kill Naruto, unleashing the Kyuubi on Konoha would only be of added benefit. It would be sold as justice for all the soldiers Namikaze had killed during the war, closure for their families. In actuality it would be the murder of a kid who had done no wrong. 

So just this once Roushi would be jinchuuriki first. He's keep the information from Iwa, from everyone including Naruto himself, and maybe then Mito’s eyes would stop following him, Kushina’s hair would stop haunting him. Roushi ordered another bottle as the empty one slid from his grasp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So let's see, Yugito has a bit of a flawed philosophy and Shino has joined the friend group. Roushi is dealing with heaping piles of guilt as well as more than a bit of self-loathing. . . And I have fulfilled my promise of the three chapters before the end of the year. If barely. I've got about a quarter of the next chapter done and a good outline of the rest of it.  
> In other news I have officially discarded the official timeline. Things are now happening whenever I say they're happening. I've given up on trying to make everything fit together properly and canonically.
> 
> Surprise guest next chapter when I kickstart the first actual conflict. Any guesses?


End file.
